[1] [2] Swarns has been a foreign correspondent for the Times while reporting from Cuba, Russia and southern Africa (where she was the Johannesburg bureau chief).

The piece coincides with the publication of her book on how the Catholic Church in the U.S. was deeply entwined with human bondage.

[2] Swarns was part of a team that investigated the aftermath of Hurricane Andrew, which won a Pulitzer Prize.

[11] Swarns did a series of investigative stories in 2016 regarding Georgetown University's connection to slavery, which received nationwide attention.

[1][12] She wrote an investigative series about black professional elites in South Africa,[2] reported on welfare reform policies of Rudolph Giuliani, health care, homelessness, racial relations in South Africa, Zimbabwe civil strife, and the Angola civil war.