Isabel Wilkerson (born 1961) is an American journalist and the author of ''
The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration'' (2010) and ''
Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents'' (2020). She is the first woman of
African-American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...
heritage to win the
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made h ...
in journalism.''
''
Wilkerson was the editor-in-chief of the
Howard University
Howard University (Howard) is a private, federally chartered historically black research university in Washington, D.C. It is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity" and accredited by the Middle States Commissi ...
college newspaper, interned at the ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...
'' and ''
Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'', and became the Chicago Bureau Chief of ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
''. She also taught at
Emory Emory may refer to:
Places
* Emory, Texas, U.S.
* Emory (crater), on the moon
* Emory Peak, in Texas, U.S.
* Emory River, in Tennessee, U.S.
Education
* Emory and Henry College, or simply Emory, in Emory, Virginia, U.S.
* Emory University
...
,
Princeton
Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ni ...
,
Northwestern, and
Boston University
Boston University (BU) is a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with its original campu ...
.
Wilkerson interviewed over a thousand people for ''The Warmth of Other Suns'', which documents the stories of African Americans who
migrated to northern and western cities during the 20th century. Her book ''Caste'' identifies the
racial
A race is a categorization of humans based on shared physical or social qualities into groups generally viewed as distinct within a given society. The term came into common usage during the 1500s, when it was used to refer to groups of variou ...
hierarchy in the United States as a
caste system
Caste is a form of social stratification characterised by endogamy, hereditary transmission of a style of life which often includes an occupation, ritual status in a hierarchy, and customary social interaction and exclusion based on cultura ...
. Both books were best-sellers.
Early life and education
Isabel Wilkerson was born in
Washington, D.C.
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
in 1961 to parents who left Virginia during the
Great Migration. Her father was one of the
Tuskegee Airmen
The Tuskegee Airmen were a group of primarily African American military pilots (fighter and bomber) and airmen who fought in World War II. They formed the 332d Fighter Group and the 477th Fighter Group, 477th Bombardment Group (Medium) of the ...
during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
.
Wilkerson studied journalism at
Howard University
Howard University (Howard) is a private, federally chartered historically black research university in Washington, D.C. It is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity" and accredited by the Middle States Commissi ...
, becoming editor-in-chief of the college newspaper ''
The Hilltop''. During college, she
intern
An internship is a period of work experience offered by an organization for a limited period of time. Once confined to medical graduates, internship is used practice for a wide range of placements in businesses, non-profit organizations and gover ...
ed at publications including the ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...
'' and ''
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
''.
Career
In 1994, while the Chicago Bureau Chief of ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', she became the first woman of
African-American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...
heritage to win the
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made h ...
in journalism,
winning the
feature writing award for her coverage of the
1993 midwestern floods and her profile of a 10-year-old boy who was responsible for his four siblings. Several of Wilkerson's articles are included in the book ''Pulitzer Prize Feature Stories: America's Best Writing, 1979 - 2003'', edited by David Garlock.
She has also been the James M. Cox Professor of Journalism at
Emory University
Emory University is a private research university in Atlanta, Georgia. Founded in 1836 as "Emory College" by the Methodist Episcopal Church and named in honor of Methodist bishop John Emory, Emory is the second-oldest private institution of ...
, Ferris Professor of Journalism at
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...
and the Kreeger-Wolf endowed lecturer at
Northwestern University
Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world.
Charte ...
and Professor of Journalism and Director of Narrative Nonfiction at Boston University's
College of Communication. She also served as a board member of the National Arts in Journalism Program at
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
.
After fifteen years of research and writing, she published ''
The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration'' in 2010, which examines the three geographic routes that were commonly used by
African Americans leaving the southern states between 1915 and the 1970s, illustrated through the personal stories of people who took those routes. During her research for the book, Wilkerson interviewed more than 1,000 people who made the migration from the South to Northern and Western cities.
The book almost instantly hit number 5 on the ''New York Times'' Bestseller list for nonfiction and has since been included in lists of best books of 2010 by many reviewers, including ''The New York Times'', ''The Los Angeles Times'', ''
The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
'',
Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational technology company focusing on e-commerce, cloud computing, online advertising, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence. It has been referred to as "one of the most influential economi ...
,
Salon.com
''Salon'' is an American politically progressive/ liberal news and opinion website created in 1995. It publishes articles on U.S. politics, culture, and current events.
Content and coverage
''Salon'' covers a variety of topics, including re ...
, ''The Washington Post'', ''
The Economist
''The Economist'' is a British weekly newspaper printed in demitab format and published digitally. It focuses on current affairs, international business, politics, technology, and culture. Based in London, the newspaper is owned by The Econo ...
'', ''
Atlanta Magazine
''Atlanta'' is a monthly general-interest magazine based in Atlanta, Georgia, and owned by Hour Media Group, LLC. Its staff has featured notable writers such as Hollis Gillespie, Anne Rivers Siddons, and William Diehl, and it has included contr ...
'' and ''
The Daily Beast
''The Daily Beast'' is an American news website focused on politics, media, and pop culture. It was founded in 2008.
It has been characterized as a "high-end tabloid" by Noah Shachtman, the site's editor-in-chief from 2018 to 2021. In a 20 ...
''.
In March 2011 the book won the
National Book Critics Circle Award
The National Book Critics Circle Awards are a set of annual American literary awards by the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) to promote "the finest books and reviews published in English".[Anisfield-Wolf Award The Anisfield-Wolf Book Award is an American literary award dedicated to honoring written works that make important contributions to the understanding of racism and the appreciation of the rich diversity of human culture. Established in 1935 by Clev ...]
for Nonfiction, the
Mark Lynton History Prize The Mark Lynton History Prize is an annual award in the amount of $10,000 given to a book "of history, on any subject, that best combines intellectual or scholarly distinction with felicity of expression". The prize is one of three awards given as p ...
, the
Sidney Hillman
Sidney Hillman (March 23, 1887 – July 10, 1946) was an American labor leader. He was the head of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America and was a key figure in the founding of the Congress of Industrial Organizations and in marshaling labor' ...
Book Prize, the
Heartland Prize for Nonfiction and was also the nonfiction runner-up for the
Dayton Literary Peace Prize
The Dayton Literary Peace Prize is an annual United States literary award "recognizing the power of the written word to promote peace" that was first awarded in 2006. Awards are given for adult fiction and non-fiction books published at some point ...
in 2011.
In a 2010 ''New York Times'' interview, Wilkerson described herself as being part of a movement of African Americans who have chosen to return to the South after generations in the North.
Wilkerson's book ''
Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents'' argues that racial stratification in the United States is best understood as a
caste
Caste is a form of social stratification characterised by endogamy, hereditary transmission of a style of life which often includes an occupation, ritual status in a hierarchy, and customary social interaction and exclusion based on cultura ...
system, akin to those in India and in Nazi Germany.
A 2020 review in ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' described it as "an instant American classic and almost certainly the keynote nonfiction book of the American century thus far."
''
Publishers Weekly
''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of B ...
'' called ''Caste'' a “powerful and extraordinarily timely social history.”''
The Chicago Tribune
The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television ar ...
'' wrote that the book was "among the year’s best" books. The book peaked at number one on
''The New York Times'' nonfiction best-seller list. On October 14, 2020,
Netflix
Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...
announced
Ava DuVernay
Ava Marie DuVernay (; born August 24, 1972) is an American filmmaker, television producer and former film publicist. She is a recipient of a Primetime Emmy Award, a NAACP Image Award, a BAFTA Film Award and a BAFTA TV Award, as well as a nominee ...
will write, direct, and produce a feature film adaptation of ''Caste.''
Bibliography
Books
* ''
The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration'' (Random House, 2010).
* ''
Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents'' (Random House, 2020).
Essays, columns and lectures
* ''The New American Reader: Recent Periodical Essays'', edited by Gilbert H. Muller (McGraw-Hill, 1997)
* "He Put a Spin on Design", in ''The Last Word: The New York Times Book of Obituaries and Farewells : a Celebration of Unusual Lives'', edited by Marvin Siegel (William Morrow, 1997)
* "Superstars of Dreamland", in ''Best American Movie Writing'', edited by George Plimpton (St. Martin's Press, 1998)
* ''We Americans: Celebrating a Nation, Its People and Its Past'', edited by Thomas B. Allen and Charles O. Hyman (National Geographic Society, 1999)
* "Two Boys, a Debt, a Gun, a Victim: The Face of Violence", in ''Writing the World: Reading and Writing about Issues of the Day'', edited by Charles R. Cooper, Susan Peck MacDonald (Macmillan, 2000).
* ''Written into History: Pulitzer Prize Reporting of the Twentieth Century'', edited by Anthony Lewis (Times Books, Henry Holt and Company, 2001)
* "First Born, Fast Grown: The Manful Life of Nicholas, 10", in ''Feature Writing for Newspapers and Magazines: The Pursuit of Excellence'', edited by Edward Jay Friedlander and John Lee (HarperCollins College Publishers, 1997); and ''The Princeton Anthology of Writing'', edited by John McPhee and Carol Rigolot (Princeton University Press, 2001)
* Various articles, ''Pulitzer Prize Feature Stories: America's Best Writing, 1979 - 2003'', edited by David Garlock (Iowa State University Press, 1998; Wiley-Blackwell; 2nd edition, April 18, 2003)
*
Interviewing Sources, Spring 2002 Nieman Narrative Journalism Conference Report
* "Angela Whitiker's Climb", in ''Class Matters'', by correspondents of ''The New York Times'' (Times Books, 2005)
* "Interviewing: Accelerated Intimacy", in ''Telling True Stories: A Nonfiction Writers' Guide from the Nieman Foundation at Harvard University'', edited by Mark Kramer and Wendy Call (Plume Penguin Books, January 30, 2007)
* "America’s Enduring Caste System" (cover story of ''
The New York Times Magazine
''The New York Times Magazine'' is an American Sunday magazine Supplement (publishing), supplement included with the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times''. It features articles longer than those typically in the newspaper and has attracted man ...
'', July 1, 2020)
Awards
* 1993
George S. Polk Award for Regional Reporting, in ''The New York Times''
* 1994
Pulitzer Prize in Journalism for Feature Writing
* 1994 Journalist of the Year award from the
National Association of Black Journalists
The National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) is an organization of African-American journalists, students, and media professionals. Founded in 1975 in Washington, D.C., by 44 journalists, the NABJ's stated purpose is to provide quality p ...
*1998
Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...
* 2010
National Book Critics Circle Award
The National Book Critics Circle Awards are a set of annual American literary awards by the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) to promote "the finest books and reviews published in English".[NAACP Image Award
The NAACP Image Awards is an annual awards ceremony presented by the U.S.-based National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) to honor outstanding performances in film, television, theatre, music, and literature. Similar to ...]
for
Outstanding Literary Work Debut Author, nominated, ''The Warmth of Other Suns''
* 2011
Anisfield-Wolf Book Award The Anisfield-Wolf Book Award is an American literary award dedicated to honoring written works that make important contributions to the understanding of racism and the appreciation of the rich diversity of human culture. Established in 1935 by Clev ...
, winner, ''The Warmth of Other Suns''
*2015
National Humanities Medal
The National Humanities Medal is an American award that annually recognizes several individuals, groups, or institutions for work that has "deepened the nation's understanding of the humanities, broadened our citizens' engagement with the human ...
from the
National Endowment for the Humanities
The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is an independent federal agency of the U.S. government, established by thNational Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965(), dedicated to supporting research, education, preserv ...
*2020
''Los Angeles Times'' Book Prize Current Interest winner, ''Caste''
* 2022 Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from
Smith College
Smith College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts Women's colleges in the United States, women's college in Northampton, Massachusetts. It was chartered in 1871 by Sophia Smith (Smith College ...
.
References
External links
*
Isabel Wilkerson Tracks Exodus of Blacks from US South- video interview by ''
Democracy Now!
''Democracy Now!'' is an hour-long American TV, radio, and Internet news program hosted by journalists Amy Goodman (who also acts as the show's executive producer), Juan González, and Nermeen Shaikh. The show, which airs live each weekday at ...
''
''Time'': Isabel Wilkerson on Black America's Immigration StoryBy Janet Maslin, ''New York Times Book Review''
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilkerson, Isabel
Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing winners
The New York Times writers
Living people
Emory University faculty
George Polk Award recipients
Howard University alumni
1961 births
Journalists from Washington, D.C.
American women journalists
20th-century American journalists
20th-century American women writers
21st-century American journalists
21st-century American women writers
African-American writers
National Humanities Medal recipients
American women academics
20th-century African-American women
20th-century African-American people
21st-century African-American women
21st-century African-American people