Aug. 27, 2007
Authors of Pulitzer Prize-Winning 'Race Beat'
to Participate in Session on Campus

The authors of “The Race Beat,” the Pulitzer Prize-winning book that examines the journalists who covered racial injustices in the segregated South after World War II, will discuss their book at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 30, in the HUB-Robeson Center Auditorium.

“The Race Beat: The Press, the Civil Rights Struggle, and the Awakening of a Nation” (2006, Random House) earned the Pulitzer Prize for non-fiction and has been widely praised.

Authors Hank Klibanoff and Gene Roberts used interviews, notes from secret meetings, private correspondence and unpublished articles to chronicle how a dedicated group of journalists exposed problems and spurred people to enact change.

A sampling of critical praise for the book includes:

“The Race Beat is a compelling reminder of the need for a vibrant and free press, with the resources and resourcefulness to shine a light on the nation’s wrongs.”
—Sarah Schweitzer, Boston Globe

“A masterpiece ... The Race Beat is a riveting piece of social history that balances both its subjects brilliantly. There has never been a better study of the importance of a free press.”
—Thomas Lipscomb, The Philadelphia Inquirer

“The Race Beat is one of those remarkable works of history that makes you see your own times more clearly.”
—Eric Alterman, The Nation

During the on-campus session, Klibanoff and Roberts will discuss their book, the effort necessary to create the book, and its impact and importance—as well as the state of race relations in the United States some 50 years later.

A native of Alabama, Hank Klibanoff is the managing editor for news at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He is a former metro reporter, national correspondent based in Chicago, business editor and deputy managing editor of The Philadelphia Inquirer, where he worked for 20 years. He was also a reporter for three years at the Boston Globe and for six years in Mississippi for The Daily Herald, the South Mississippi Sun and the Delta Democrat-Times.

Gene Roberts is a journalism professor at the University of Maryland. He was a reporter with the Goldsboro News-Argus and The Virginian-Pilot, and a reporter and editor with The News & Observer and the Detroit Free Press before joining The New York Times in 1965, where until 1972 he served as chief southern and civil rights correspondent, chief war correspondent in South Vietnam and national editor. During his 18 years as executive editor of The Philadelphia Inquirer, his staff won 17 Pulitzer Prizes. He later became the managing editor of the The New York Times.

Contact information:
Steve Sampsell
Director of College Relations
Phone: (814) 865-8801
Email:sws102@psu.edu