Have lunch with Fraser Smith from WYPR's News Department and discuss the day's headlines and receive an autographed copy of his latest book "Here Lies Jim Crow: Civil Rights in Maryland".

Fraser Smith has been in the news business for over 30 years and as WYPR's news director, he oversees story assignments with a staff of 10 reporters and stringers. He began his reportorial career with the Jersey Journal, a daily New Jersey newspaper and then moved on to the Providence Journal in Providence, Rhode Island. In 1969 Fraser won a prestigious American Political Science Association Public Affairs Fellowship, which enabled him to devote a year to graduate study at Yale University. In 1977, Fraser was hired away by The Baltimore Sun where in 1981, he moved to the newspaper's Washington bureau to focus on policy problems and their everyday effect on Marylanders. In 1983, he became the Sun's chief political reporter.

During his career as a reporter, Fraser was the recipient of numerous journalism awards: from UPI New England in 1973, from AP New England in 1974 and 1975, from Roy W. Howard in 1975, from Maryland-Delaware-D.C. Press Association in 1981, and from Sigma Delta Chi in 1986. His Sun series on lead paint poisoning, which he wrote with his wife, Eileen Canzian, won first place and best of show honors in 1987 from the Maryland-Delaware-D.C. Press Association. Between 1999 and 2003, he has served as an editorial writer and columnist for the Sun.