Two Black women commanded major prizes in the Pulitzer Class of 2020.
Ida B. Wells was recognized posthumously under Special Citations and Awards “for her outstanding and courageous reporting on the horrific and vicious violence against African Americans during the era of lynching.” The Commentary prize went to Nikole Hannah-Jones of the New York Times “for a sweeping, deeply reported and personal essay for the ground-breaking 1619 Project, which seeks to place the enslavement of Africans at the center of America’s story, prompting public conversation about the nation’s founding and evolution.”
In both cases, and more than a century apart, two Black women championed and unerased our realities, struggles and triumphs in a long and unbroken march to liberation. Ironically, Hannah-Jones cites Ida B. Wells as one of her greatest inspirations and had adopted the Twitter handle “Ida Bae Wells.”
Visit the Pulitzer page to read Hannah-Jones’s expansive essay
