Renee Ferguson, the first Black woman to work as an investigative reporter on television in Chicago, died in hospice care on June 6, 2025, at the age of 75.
She was a Nieman Fellow in the class of 2007 at Harvard University.
Ferguson spent more than 25 years reporting for the Chicago television stations WMAQ-TV/NBC 5 Chicago and WBBM-Ch. 2. She also was a longtime member of the Chicago chapter of the National Association of Black Journalists.
Her investigations served to shine a light on stories might otherwise have gone unreported. In an interview conducted for the 75th anniversary of WMAQ in 2023, she spoke about her journalism career:
“It’s a privilege, but it’s also a great responsibility, to be correct, to get the facts right, to always be fair and to understand that you’re dealing with humanity, that you’re dealing with human beings… As a Black woman and the only Black woman doing investigative reporting — and the first in the city, pretty much in the nation — it had to be right. There could be no mistakes, there could be no errors.”
She also discussed what drew her to the subjects she covered: “When you see something that’s really wrong, when you see a wrong that has been done, you’ve got to say something, you’ve got to do something.”
A lifelong love of reporting and storytelling
Born in Oklahoma in 1949, Ferguson graduated from high school in Oklahoma City before earning a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Indiana University in 1971. As a student, she covered protests at Jackson State University and Kent State University and was an intern for The Washington Post.
After college, Ferguson worked briefly as a writer for The Indianapolis Star before taking a job as a news reporter at WLWI-TV in Indianapolis. She spent five years there before accepting a position in 1977 at Chicago’s CBS affiliate WBBM-Ch. 2, where she was a reporter and host of the station’s public affairs talk show “Common Ground.”
In 1983, Ferguson began work as an Atlanta-based network correspondent for CBS News. She returned to Chicago in 1987 to join NBC affiliate WMAQ-Ch. 5 as an investigative reporter, covering stories involving human and civil rights, social justice, women’s rights, children’s health and consumer issues.
One of those reports was Ferguson’s investigation of strip searches of women of color conducted by U.S. Customs officials at O’Hare International Airport. After the story aired, Congressional hearings were held to review the discriminatory practice, the search procedures were rewritten and Ferguson and her team won a Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award in 1999 for their work.
Ferguson’s other honors include seven Chicago Emmy Awards, a Gracie Award, the Associated Press Award for Best Investigative Reporting and many others. She also served on the board of Investigative Reporters and Editors from 2006-2008.
Ferguson was a 1993 William Benton Fellow at the University of Chicago and traveled to South Africa to learn more about the country. After her fellowship ended, she returned to the country to cover the 1994 South Africa elections for NBC 5.
Ferguson also notably filed numerous stories about Tyrone Hood, a young Chicago man wrongfully convicted of the 1993 killing of an Illinois Institute of Technology basketball player. Hood insisted that he was innocent and Ferguson’s reporting ultimately led to his exoneration when Gov. Pat Quinn commuted his prison sentence in 2015. Ferguson had continued to advocate for Hood’s release long after she had left reporting.
After retiring from WMAQ in 2008, Ferguson served as a spokeswoman for former U.S. Sen. Carol Moseley-Braun during Moseley-Braun’s unsuccessful campaign to become Chicago mayor in 2011 and as a press secretary for U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush.
In later years, she continued to write, edit and do research and, as a book doctor, helped her clients with book proposals and submissions to editors.
One of Ferguson’s investigative interns during her time at WMAQ was Harvard undergraduate Pete Buttigieg, who later served as U.S. Transportation Secretary and mayor of South Bend, Indiana. Ferguson and her husband hosted Buttigieg in their home during his stay in Chicago. In a recent post on X, Buttigieg wrote: “I learned so much from Renee Ferguson. She made countless lives better through her brilliant investigative journalism—as well as her mentorship of young people looking to make a difference. I’m so sad to learn of her passing, but also know that her impact and example will live on across Chicagoland and far beyond.”
Ferguson’s husband Ken Smikle, died in 2018. She is survived by her son, Jason Smikle.
In a comment submitted for the Nieman Foundation’s 2007 annual report, Ferguson reflected on her Nieman Fellowship:
“The people I met during my Nieman year made it magic. The fellows have become an international family with loving relationships. But the Nieman also opened the doors, hearts and minds of the entire Harvard community to me. … Harvard’s academics were amazing, our Nieman seminars and Soundings memorable, but the best part of the Nieman experience was the personal growth that came from a new network of colleagues and friends in the larger Harvard community who have forever changed my world for the better.”
Additional reading:
NBC 5 Chicago:
Renee Ferguson, long-time NBC Chicago investigative journalist, dies
“She was a relentless advocate of the truth,” said Kevin Cross, president and general manager of NBCU Local Chicago, “and she was just as much an advocate for the people she worked with.”
Chicago Sun Times:
Renee Ferguson, groundbreaking NBC5 investigative journalist, dies at 75
Ms. Ferguson made history when she became the first Black woman to work as an investigative reporter in Chicago TV news. Her reporting led to the exoneration of a man whose forced confession led to a wrongful convicted in a murder case.
Nieman Reports
A Dilemma for Black Women in Broadcast Journalism
‘They say you look militant, like Angela Davis. You’re scaring them!’
By Renee Ferguson
Journal-isms
Renee Ferguson Dies, Ace Gumshoe Journalist
