Congrats are in order for the Detroit Free Press’ Stephen Henderson! The 43-year-old Editorial Page Editor won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for “his columns on the financial crisis facing his hometown, written with passion and a stirring sense of place, sparing no one in their critique.” This is the biggest prize in U.S. journalism! “It’s not really sunk in yet. I’m still completely overwhelmed, but, of course, really grateful,” Henderson told the Free Press.
Must Read: Dad Tells How Drake Surprised His Terminally Ill Daughter With A Home Visit [EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW]
“There is still greatness there and excellence,” Henderson says of his hometown of Detroit . “I feel like it’s ironic, almost, that I’m being honored for work about perhaps the darkest hour for my city, the city where I was born…we’re down but not out.”
Henderson is the seventh Black journalist to win in the commentary category since 1970 and the only individual Black journalist mentioned for this year’s award! Black men rock!
Check Out All The Black Pulitzer Winners:
1950 Gwendolyn Brooks, Annie Allen, Poetry
1969 Moneta Sleet, Jr., Deep Sorrow, Photography
1970 Charles Gordone, No Place to be Somebody, Drama
1976 Scott Joplin, (posthumous), Special Citation, Music
1977 Alex Haley, Roots, Special Citation
1978 James Alan McPherson, Elbow Room, Fiction
1982 Charles Fuller, A Soldiers Play, Drama
1982 John H. White, Journalism, Feature Photography
1983 Alice Walker, The Color Purple, Fiction
1984 Norman Lockman, Journalism (shared), Investigative Reporting
1984 Kirk Scharfenberg, Journalism (shared), Investigative Reporting
1987 Rita Dove, Thomas and Beulah, Poetry
1987 August Wilson, Fences, Drama
1988 Michel duCille, Journalism, Feature Photography
1988 Toni Morrison, Beloved, Fiction
1989 Clarence Page, Journalism, Commentary
1990 August Wilson, The Piano Lesson, Drama
1994 William Raspberry, Journalism, Commentary
1994 Yusef Komunyakaa, Neon Vernacular, Poetry
1994 Isabel Wilkerson, Journalism, Feature Writing
1994 David Levering Lewis, W E B Du Bois: 1868-1919, Biography
1996 E.R. Shipp, Journalism, Commentary
1996 George Walker, Lilacs for…Orchestra, Music
1997 Wynton Marsalis, Blood on the Fields, Music
1998 Clarence Williams, Journalism, Feature Photography
1999 Duke Ellington (posthumous), Special Citation, Music
2001 David Levering Lewis, W E B Du Bois: 1919-1963, Biography
2001 Gerald Boyd, Journalism (shared), National Reporting
2002 Suzan-Lori Parks, Top Dog/Under Dog, Drama
2003 Colbert I. King, Journalism (columnist), Commentary
2004 Leonard Pitts, Journalism, Commentary
2004 Edward P Jones, The Known World, Fiction
2005 Dele Olojede, Journalism, International Reporting
2006 Thelonius Monk, (posthumous), Special Citation
2006 Trymaine Lee, Journalism (shared), Breaking News
2006 Robin Givham, Journalism, Criticism
2006 Irwin Thompson, Journalism (shared), Breaking News
2007 Natasha Trethewey, Native Guard, Poetry
2007 Ornette Coleman, Sound Grammar, Music
2007 John Coltrane, (posthumous), Special Citation
2007 Quinton Smith, Journalism (shared), Breaking News
2007 Cynthia Tucker, Journalism, Commentary
2009 Annette Gordon-Reed, The Hemingses of Monticello, History
2009 Eugene Robinson, Journalism, Commentary
2009 Lynn Nottage, Ruined, Drama
2012 Tracy K. Smith, Life on Mars, Poetry
Related Stories:
BEAUTIFUL NEWS: These Teens’ Choice To Challenge Black Stereotypes Will Inspire You [VIDEO]
BEAUTIFUL NEWS: Black Woman Poised To Run For Mayor Of Chicago
Check Out This Gallery Of Black Women In History You Should Know:
BEAUTIFUL NEWS: Black Man Wins 2014 Pulitzer Prize + More Black Winners was originally published on hellobeautiful.com
