Jarrett, Vernon Daurice
1918-2004 · Contribution: 1946-1995
Became the first African American syndicated columnist at both the Chicago Tribune (1970) and the Chicago Sun-Times (1983), writing nearly 4,000 columns over a 50-year career and co-founding the National Association of Black Journalists in 1975
Portraits are AI-generated interpretations, not photographs.
Impact on the world
After beginning his career at the Chicago Defender in 1946 and co-creating Negro Newsfront, the first daily radio newscast produced by African Americans, Jarrett broke a major color barrier in 1970 by becoming the Chicago Tribune’s first Black syndicated columnist, earning the first of seven Pulitzer Prize nominations within two years. He co-founded the National Association of Black Journalists in 1975 and served as its second president from 1977 to 1979, and in 1977 founded ACT-SO, the NAACP’s Academic, Cultural, Technological, and Scientific Olympics, which has since awarded more than a million dollars in scholarships to Black students nationwide. Jarrett was also a decisive behind-the-scenes organizer of Harold Washington’s successful 1983 campaign to become Chicago’s first Black mayor, and he hosted a Chicago television talk show for more than 30 years and a long-running radio commentary, The Jarrett Journal, until his death.
Life & background
Born June 19, 1918 (some sources cite 1921), in Saulsbury, Tennessee, to schoolteacher parents, Jarrett graduated from Knoxville College in 1941, served in the U.S. Navy, and moved to Chicago in 1946 to join the Chicago Defender, later working for the Associated Negro Press. He wrote a syndicated column for the Chicago Tribune from 1970 to 1983 and the Chicago Sun-Times from 1983 until his 1995 retirement, continued broadcasting and writing for the Chicago Defender into his final years, and died of cancer in Chicago on May 23, 2004, at age 85.
Sources
- BlackPast.org; Encyclopedia.com; Washington Post obituary
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