The correspondence dates from 1945 to 1949 and includes letters between Smith, Branch Rickey, and Jackie Robinson concerning spring training accommodations for Robinson, the demise of the Negro Leagues, and the support of the Pittsburgh Courier for the integration of major league baseball. Of note among letters between Rickey and Smith are Smith's suggestion of Brooklyn signing Robinson's UCLA teammate Kenny Washington as his second Black player (December 19, 1945), and letters written by Smith in 1948 and 1949 discussing the possibility of using established Negro League teams or new touring teams for training Black players signed by Brooklyn. Also of note are two incoming letters from Robinson. In the first, dated October 31, 1945, Robinson thanks Smith for supporting his candidacy with the Brooklyn organization and questions comments made by Bob Feller in a printed article on Robinson's chances in major league baseball. The second letter, c. 1948, concerns the completion of the book they wrote together.

The newspaper clippings are more comprehensive and date from 1943 through 1961. The vast majority of these clippings are Smith's columns, "The Sports Beat," that ran in the Pittsburgh Courier and, later, the Chicago's American. The columns primarily date from 1946 through 1948 and include detailed accounts of the integration of major league baseball as well as the individual exploits of Black players in the major leagues, minor leagues, and the Negro Leagues. These players and management figures include: Brooklyn Dodgers players Robinson, Johnny Wright, Roy Campanella, Don Newcombe, and Cleveland Indians player Larry Doby; Negro League player Satchel Paige; Brooklyn Dodgers General Manager Branch Rickey; Brooklyn Dodgers coach Clyde Sukeforth and manager Leo Durocher, and Newark Eagles owner Effa Manley. Many of the articles revolve around the personal experience of Robinson at Montreal in 1946 and with Brooklyn in 1947 through the 1950s. Smith included reprints of positive letters that Robinson received in a column written on April 26, 1947, a report from Montreal on May 11, 1946, the salary that Robinson received in 1947 from his player salary, exhibition baseball, endorsements, his movie contract and other resources, an offer after the 1947 season by the Harlem Globetrotters for Robinson to play with them. Columns and articles of note include coverage of Happy Chandler's speech at the Hotel Schenley in Pittsburgh (September 1, 1945), a reprinted editorial from The Sporting News critical about integrating Black players into organized baseball and critical comments directed towards the New York Chapter of the Baseball Writers' Association of America for a sketch done at their annual banquet where they portrayed Robinson as a butler on Rickey's southern plantation (2/23/1946), and the reception to the Dodgers' Black players by various Florida cities (April 6, 1946). Two articles (May 24, 1947 and December 3, 1949) praise Pittsburgh Pirate first baseman, and later Cleveland general manager, Hank Greenberg for his sympathetic support of Robinson as the first Black baseball player in the National and American leagues in the 20th Century.

Articles documenting the history and changing role of Negro League baseball are numerous and include many references to players, owners, and other officials. Items of note include a tribute to Homestead Grays owner Cumberland Posey (April 13, 1946), two articles on Abe and Effa Manley, owners of the Newark Eagles (July 13, 1946 and September 18, 1948, with the latter reflecting upon her decision to leave the ranks of Negro Leagues owners), a 1943 article on Paige's performance in Pittsburgh, an undated article recording Posey's choices for the best Negro League teams between 1913 and 1931, 1948 folding of the Negro National League, coverage of the East-West games between 1946 and 1949. Smith wrote repeatedly of the need to continue to support the Negro Leagues and in an article dated December 16, 1950, wrote that the Negro Leagues should consider moving the focus of their operations towards producing major league talent and operate much like a minor league. Newspaper clippings from 1961 primarily include articles written by Smith (along with responses from other sports writers) describing the continued problems of segregated accommodations at Florida spring training facilities. Also of note are numerous articles on Black athletes in other sports including football, basketball, golf, and boxing including a November 13, 1948 column that tells an account of the first intercollegiate game between two Black schools: Biddle University and Livingstone College in Salisbury North Carolina, 1892.