WUSTL alumnus receives Pulitzer Prize for history

April 17, 2007 -- The Pulitzer Prize for history was awarded Monday to Hank Klibanoff, a Washington University alumnus.

Klibanoff, who graduated from Washington University in 1971 with a bachelor's degree in English in Arts & Sciences, and Gene Roberts won the Pulitzer Prize for "The Race Beat: The Press, the Civil Rights Struggle, and the Awakening of a Nation" (Knopf, 2006).

The book tells the story of how the civil rights struggle gradually made its way onto the front pages.

Klibanoff, a native of Florence, Ala., is managing editor for Enterprise at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

"I was at Washington University from 1967-1971, which was a period of great consciousness-raising," said Klibanoff. "I was privileged to have such great instructors as Barry Commoner, Stanley Elkin, Howard Nemerov and Peter Riesenberg — they and many others had an enormous influence on me.

"I came away from my Washington University experience with a great appreciation for deep research, deep scholarship and deep thinking," said Klibanoff. "That along with my own interest in newspapers and my southern childhood, all contributed to this book and what others have declared a success."