Chicago author Jonathan Eig wins Pulitzer Prize for book on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Chicago author Jonathan Eig was awarded a 2024 Pulitzer Prize at Columbia University in New York City Monday.
He was honored with the award for his biography of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., titled "King: A Life."
Eig wrote about a persistent social problem in the book: "But in allowing King, we have hollowed him—from Montgomery to Chicago along those streets named Martin Luther King Jr. Drive and Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr. Highway, poverty and segregation rates remain much higher than local and national averages."
Dwight Garner of the New York Times called "King: A Life" the "new definitive biography" – and also called the book "supple, penetrating, heartstring-pulling, and compulsively readable." Mark Whitaker of the Washington Post said the volume was "infused the narrative energy of a thriller."
Did Eig know he was writing a "new definitive biography" for Dr. King? Actually, he said he did.
"I knew how important it was to tell King's story, and I knew how relevant it was to the world we're living in today," said Eig, "because look what's happening to us. We're still fighting over racism."
Eig spent six years – including an entire pandemic – in the laundry room writing. He was buried in unfolded clothes as he unearthed transformative firsts about Dr. King – many via newly released government documents. The book reveals, and it debunks.
Eig was one of two winners of the Pulitzer Prize for Biography in arts and letters. The Pulitzer committee said Eig's book enriches our understanding of each stage of Dr. King's life.
Author Ilyon Woo, also got a Biography award for her book, "Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Prison."
Invisible Institute wins prizes for podcast, investigation
Meanwhile, the Invisible Institute, a 12-person nonprofit newsroom based on Chicago's South Side, won the 2024 Pulitzer Prize for Audio Reporting and Local Reporting.
The Invisible Institute won the Audio Reporting award for its "You Didn't See Nothin" podcast. The podcast, as described in a news release, follows host Yohance Lacour as he looks back at the racially-motivated attack on a Black teen by Lenard Clark by a group of older white teens in the Bridgeport neighborhood in 1997.
The Local Reporting award for "Missing in Chicago," a two-year investigation into the handling of missing persons cases by Chicago Police, and disproportionate impact of the missing persons crisis on Black women and girls. The award went to Trina Reynolds-Tyler of the Invisible Institute, and Sarah Conway of City Bureau.
