Hampton University visiting professor wins Pulitzer Prize

Black Issues in Higher Education, May 6, 2004

HAMPTON, VA.

Leonard Pitts, 2004 Scripps Howard Visiting Professional at Hampton University and syndicated columnist, has been awarded the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for commentary. Pitts won the prize for columns he wrote for the Miami Herald in 2003. The Pulitzers, which are awarded by Columbia University, are considered journalism's top honor.

Pitts' students describe him as a great teacher and mentor.

"He has taught us how to formulate our opinions so that they have an impact on readers," said Janell Hazellwood, a senior print journalism major at Hampton University.

"The fact that Leonard Pitts is on our faculty is a reflection of the vision that the Scripps Howard Foundation and Hampton University had when they created the School of Journalism and Communications," said school director Dr. Chris Campbell. "Our students are getting the benefit of wisdom and experience of Professor Pitts as well as a number of other enormously talented professionals."

Pitts' Miami Herald newspaper column on pop culture, social issues and family life is syndicated in more than 150 daily newspapers. He won the top prize for commentary at the Scripps Howard Foundation's National Journalism Awards in 2002. Pitts was also a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 1992.

He worked for 15 years as a music writer before joining the Miami Herald as its pop music critic in 1991. Pitts began his column in 1994. In 1997, he published a book, Becoming Dad: Black Men and the Journey to Fatherhood.