Voices from The Times newsroom past and present on issues of race

Janet Clayton, former staff writer, editor of the editorial pages and Metro editor I am a native Angeleno and was a longtime journalist at this newspaper, so people often assume I must have grown up reading the L.A. Times. At one project meeting in a bar near the newsroom, a veteran white reporter seated at a nearby table looked over his shoulder, smiled sarcastically and asked in a voice loud enough for all of us to hear, “So, when can we expect to see this debacle?” We persisted, though, interviewing political leaders, city planners, historians, business leaders, law enforcement authorities, gang members, school officials and exemplary students in local high schools. ••• Craig Matsuda, former editor Shortly after arriving to work as an editor on The Times’ View section from the Denver Post’s Metro desk, I was invited by the late Frank del Olmo, then on the editorial pages, to an unusual gathering in an out-of-the-way meeting room. Angel Jennings was recently named The Times’ first assistant managing editor for culture and talent, part of the newspaper’s efforts to reform hiring practices and increase staff diversity. ••• Pamela Moreland, staff writer and editor during the 1980s I was the first African American to work as a journalist in the Los Angeles Times’ Business section.