How Isabel Wilkerson Became the First Black Woman to Win the Pulitzer Prize in Journalism

Isabel Wilkerson stands out as one of the few Black individuals honoured in a field predominantly celebrated by whites. In 1994, at the age of 33, Wilkerson received a Pulitzer Prize for individual reporting for her coverage of the Midwestern floods and a poignant story about a 10-year-old boy taking care of his siblings.

Isabel Wilkerson, born in 1961, is an American journalist and author renowned for her books “The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration” (2010) and “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents” (2020).

In her interview following the National Humanities Award, Isabel Wilkerson reflected on her extensive journalism career with a laugh, remarking, “That’s several lifetimes in journalism.”

Her research for her epic narrative involved interviewing over 1,200 individuals to select the three protagonists who would anchor her story about the six decades between World War I and 1970—a period when more than 6 million African Americans migrated from the South to the North.

Wilkerson dedicated hundreds of hours to interviewing these main figures, accompanying them to church, casinos, and hospitals to immerse herself fully in their lives and stories.

Early Life and Education

Isabel Wilkerson grew up in Washington, D.C., the daughter of Southern migrants; her mother hailed from Rome, Georgia, and her father from Virginia, where he served as a Tuskegee Airman during World War II. They met as students at Howard University.

Wilkerson’s early education in a diverse local school exposed her to classmates with European immigrant backgrounds, contrasting with her own heritage rooted in the Great Migration—the significant relocation of African Americans from rural Southern areas to major Northern and Western cities throughout the 20th century.

This realization deepened her connection to her identity as a descendant of migrants within the U.S. Reflecting on her unique American story, Wilkerson shared with Time magazine in 2010, “On St. Patrick’s Day, when people would talk about their immigrant past, I believed I didn’t have any stories to tell.

My forbears had been in the U.S. for centuries. Yet, it turns out that African Americans indeed have a story of migration in this country.”

Wilkerson began her journalism career as editor of her high school newspaper. She then attended Howard University, where she advanced to editor-in-chief of The Hilltop. During her college years, she gained substantial experience through internships at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times.

A Brief Overview of Her Career

In 1994, while serving as the Chicago Bureau Chief for The New York Times, Isabel Wilkerson made history as the first African-American woman to win a Pulitzer Prize in journalism.

She received the feature writing award for her compelling coverage of the 1993 Midwestern floods and a poignant profile of a 10-year-old boy caring for his four younger siblings. Several of Wilkerson’s pieces are featured in the anthology “Pulitzer Prize Feature Stories: America’s Best Writing, 1979 – 2003,” edited by David Garlock.

Wilkerson has held prestigious academic positions including the James M. Cox Professor of Journalism at Emory University, Ferris Professor of Journalism at Princeton University, and Kreeger-Wolf Endowed Lecturer at Northwestern University.

She has also been a Professor of Journalism and Director of Narrative Nonfiction at Boston University’s College of Communication. Additionally, she served on the board of the National Arts in Journalism Program at Columbia University.

Her Dedication to Writing and Research

After fifteen years of meticulous research and writing, Isabel Wilkerson published “The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration” in 2010.

The book explores the three main routes African Americans took when migrating from the southern states between 1915 and the 1970s, vividly brought to life through the personal stories of those who embarked on these journeys.

Wilkerson conducted over a thousand interviews with individuals who participated in this migration, enriching her narrative with their firsthand experiences. The book quickly ascended to number 5 on the New York Times Bestseller list for nonfiction and has been lauded by numerous publications, including The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and The New Yorker, among others.

In March 2011, it received the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction, along with other prestigious accolades like the Anisfield-Wolf Award, the Mark Lynton History Prize, and the Sidney Hillman Book Prize.

In a 2010 interview with The New York Times, Wilkerson identified herself as part of a trend of African Americans returning to the South after generations in the North.

Her 2020 book, “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents,” presents a compelling argument that racial stratification in the United States resembles a caste system, comparable to those in India and Nazi Germany.

Dwight Garner of The New York Times hailed it as “an instant American classic and almost certainly the keynote nonfiction book of the American century thus far.” Publishers Weekly and The Chicago Tribune also praised the book for its powerful social analysis.

“Caste” reached number one on The New York Times nonfiction best-seller list. In a significant nod to its impact, Netflix announced on October 14, 2020, that Ava DuVernay would write, direct, and produce a feature film adaptation of the book.

Isabel Wilkerson Legacy and Awards

In 2023, Ava DuVernay directed “Origin,” a biographical drama focusing on Isabel Wilkerson and the creation of her book “Caste.” Aunjanue Ellis starred in the lead role.

• 1993: George S. Polk Award for Regional Reporting, The New York Times
• 1994: Pulitzer Prize in Journalism for Feature Writing
• 1994: Journalist of the Year, National Association of Black Journalists
• 1998: Guggenheim Fellowship
• 2010: National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction, “The Warmth of Other Suns”
• 2011: NAACP Image Award Nominee for Outstanding Literary Work – Debut Author, “The Warmth of Other Suns”
• 2011: Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, “The Warmth of Other Suns”
• 2015: National Humanities Medal, National Endowment for the Humanities
• 2020: Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Current Interest, “Caste”

Wilkerson has been married twice. Her first marriage was to Roderick Jeffrey Watts in Fort Washington, Maryland, in 1989. She married her second husband, Brett Kelly Hamilton, in 2009.

Tragically, Hamilton passed away in 2015 after a prolonged illness. He had been battling a rare brain tumor, which led to multiple surgeries and subsequent seizures. It is believed that one such seizure resulted in his death on July 19, 2015.