Gene Roberts and Hank Klibanoff
Gene Roberts and Hank Klibanoff
Gene Roberts and Hank Klibanoff
Gene Roberts and Hank Klibanoff have spent their careers examining how journalism shapes history, a question they answer with particular urgency in The Race Beat: The Press, the Civil Rights Struggle, and the Awakening of a Nation, which won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for History. Both seasoned journalists themselves—Roberts served as editor of The New York Times and Philadelphia Inquirer, while Klibanoff worked as an investigative reporter and editor—the authors brought insider knowledge and archival rigor to their examination of how American newspapers covered (and often failed to cover) the civil rights movement. Their collaboration stands as a definitive account of journalism’s complicity in, and eventual role in advancing, racial justice.
What makes The Race Beat particularly vital is its unflinching look at the press’s initial indifference to civil rights atrocities. Roberts and Klibanoff trace how national news organizations gradually awakened to stories that local Black newspapers had been reporting for decades, revealing uncomfortable truths about institutional bias within the very institutions claiming to serve the public interest. Their Pulitzer recognition reflects the book’s significance not just as media history, but as a reckoning with how power, journalism, and moral consciousness intersect. The award underscores the enduring relevance of their work—a masterclass in accountability that speaks to contemporary questions about whose stories get told and by whom.