Helping free Kemba Smith is the highlight of my 30 years in journalism. "Kemba�s Nightmare" resonated with so many people because it was an exceptionally powerful story. What gave it impact was Kemba�s willingness to be completely open, even about matters that were personally embarrassing.

Reginald Stuart, a former reporter for The New York Times and a former news editor for Knight Ridder newspapers in Washington, D.C., was able to elicit the most intimate details from Kemba and her parents, Gus and Odessa Smith. That enabled the writing of an engaging narrative that took readers on a roller coaster ride alternating between sympathy and exasperation.

The final package did not come together without the special skills of Flo. She, as always, was my sounding board and partner in everything I undertook at Emerge.

Though we are extremely proud of our role in bringing Kemba�s case to national attention, we recognize that Kemba would not be free today if Elaine R. Jones, president/director counsel of the Legal Defense Fund (LDF), had not read our story and decided that her organization would take up the cause.

In addition to fighting through the courts, LDF petitioned Clinton for clemency. Other groups, including Families Against Mandatory Minimums, also rallied to Kemba�s defense. After Emerge published "Kemba�s Nightmare," other journalists picked up on the story, including Tony Brown�s Journal, BET�s Teen Summit, Save Our Streets, the Leeza show and columnists from The New York Times, the Washington Post and the Nashville Tennessean.

No one deserves more credit than Kemba and her family. I have witnessed the transformation of a regular middle-class couple�Gus and Odessa Smith�to passionate national spokespersons warning a nation about the dangers of stiff, mandatory drug sentences.

Yes, I made the decision to publish the stories in Emerge and I wrote three columns last year about Kemba that were syndicated by the National Newspaper Publishers Association (Aug. 17, Sept. 11 and Nov. 28), but I am not the one who freed Kemba Smith. Nor did Elaine Jones of LDF. The truth freed Kemba.
Even prosecutors acknowledged that the first-time, nonviolent offender fell in love with Peter Hall, a drug-dealing thug, but never sold or used drugs.

When Reggie Stuart told me about this case in 1995, I was fascinated. Reggie had returned from a class reunion at Tennessee State University where a classmate, David P. Baugh, had told him about an interesting case he was working on. When Reggie asked me if Emerge would be interested in publishing the story, I said yes and asked him to proceed with the reporting.

Like many of my freelancers, Reggie always writes long and takes a long time writing. In fact, I always joke that he thinks he�s writing for World Book encyclopedia. So when he turned in a first draft that ran about 11,000 words�about five times our normal story length�I thought we could easily reduce it by 75 percent.

As I always do, I turned the story over to Flo. She is a tough-minded editor who believes in publishing tight stories. So when she recommended that we publish the entire story, which would mean forgoing all other feature stories for that issue, I should have known that we were on to something special. But I didn�t.
"Flo may be too close to this story," I thought. "Surely, we can cut this story to at least 4,000 words." I read the story, flipping the pages with my left hand and holding my editing pen in my right, looking for fat to cut. But I became so engrossed in the story, that by the time I had finished reading, I was still looking for a place to cut. It was a powerful piece of reporting and writing. I requested some additional reporting, Flo wanted to move a few sections around, but for the most part, we had the framework for "Kemba�s Nightmare."

To make room, the only other lengthy piece published in that issue was a Mary Frances Berry "Perspective" on the 100th anniversary of Plessy v. Ferguson. Our 24-page package on Kemba included a 17-page cover story, the longest in the history of the magazine, a 3-page sidebar on mandatory sentencing and a 4-page "Dialogue" with two psychologists.

As an additional check, I asked my entire editorial staff to read the cover story and give me some feedback. To my surprise, each young member of my staff said that either they or someone close to them could have ended up like Kemba.

Associate Publisher Clarence Brown liked the story, too. But being the no-nonsense businessperson that he is, Clarence reminded me that I was taking a big chance by deciding to devote the whole feature well to one story. Either readers would be interested in that one story, he cautioned me, or they wouldn�t buy the magazine at all. For Flo and I, it was a no-brainer. We had to publish that story.

The subsequent response from readers supported that decision.

"Without a doubt, this is the most heartfelt piece of journalism that I have read in my life," Tony Black of Jackson, Tenn., said in a letter to the editor. "The story reached out and grabbed my heart, mind and soul and would not let go. As I write these words, I am crying � "

In a letter to Emerge [Sept. 1996], Kemba said: "Letters from students from all over the country who have read the article in the classrooms tell me how much of an impact the story is having on them. Teachers such as Mr. Langston, who teaches English at Morris Brown High School in Bronx, N.Y., and an American history teacher at Warrensville Heights High School in Cleveland, Ohio, are using the article as a study tool. Churches are discussing my story in youth Bible study class, for example, a church in Jamestown, N.C., and Prepare the Way Ministries in Houman, La. Brothers are presenting my story before their congregations at Muslim mosques; parents are planning on using different approaches in communicating with their children; and women in abusive relationships are identifying with the low self-esteem issues that keep many in bad relationships and are in sympathy with my situation."

Now, almost five years after we published our first story in Emerge, "Kemba�s Nightmare" has come to an end. It shows what can happen when there is a just cause, devoted parents, a media entity that keeps the spotlight on a case, lawyers who do their part by fighting in the courtroom and at the highest levels of government, and a community that encourages all parties to stay the course. In short, this is what it takes to bring about change in America.

(George E. Curry is former editor-in-chief of Emerge magazine. He can be reached through his website, georgecurry.com.)