Smith was born in Detroit, Michigan and studied journalism at Virginia State College. He began working at The Pittsburgh Courier immediately after graduating in 1937, first as a sportswriter and as the sports editor the following year. He used his position to protest segregation in professional sports. He is best remembered for his efforts which led to Jackie Robinson signing with the Dodgers in 1947. He recommended Robinson to Brooklyn Dodger's coach Branch Rickey for the "great experiment," and traveled and roomed with Robinson during the baseball player's early Dodgers career. In his later years Smith worked at mainstream companies, The Chicago American and at WGN-TV in Chicago. He died of cancer in 1972, at the age of 58. He was posthumously inducted into the writer's wing of The Baseball Hall of Fame in 1994.

Further Reading

Wiggins, David Kenneth. Wendell Smith: The Pittsburgh Courier-Journal and the Campaign to include Blacks in Organized Baseball, 1933-1945. Journal of Sport History, vol. 10, no. 2 (Summer 1983): 5-29.