Ronald Smothers, a reporter who covered racial turmoil as well as milestones for African Americans in a career spanning nearly four decades, including 35 years at The New York Times, where he served as Atlanta bureau chief during the bombing there at the 1996 Summer Olympics, died on April 24 in Wilmington, Delaware. He was 79.
His death, at a nursing home, followed a stroke last year, his daughter, Val Dorah Smothers, said.
Mr. Smothers was among a small wave of African American reporters hired by nearly all-white newsrooms in the late 1960s with the expectation they could gain access to Black sources and bring insights during a turbulent period of the civil rights movement. He considered it his role to ensure that Black social and political trends were reflected in news coverage.
