[3] He attended Knoxville College in Tennessee on a football scholarship,[4] and graduated with a bachelor's in history and sociology in 1941.
[2] For three years beginning in 1948 he partnered with composer Oscar Brown, Jr. to produce Negro Newsfront, the first daily radio news broadcast in the United States to be created by African Americans.
[8] During his years at the Tribune, he also was a host on Chicago's ABC-TV station, WLS, where he produced nearly 2,000 television broadcasts.
[9] In 1974, Jarrett established the ACT-SO program to assist inner-city youth in academic fields and shine a light on them for achievement in these areas.
[12] The Vernon Jarrett Medal for Journalistic Excellence is awarded annually by the Institute for Advanced Journalism Studies of North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University to honor "outstanding coverage of people of African descent and the issues that impact their lives.