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Leonard Pitts Jr., columnist for the Miami Herald |
Join us for
The 2007 Ruhl Lecture
Leonard Pitts Jr. presents “A Legacy of Drums”
4:00 p.m.
Alumni Lounge, Gerlinger Hall, 1468 University Street
Book-signing and reception to follow; Books will be available for sale.
Leonard Pitts Jr., the thirty-first Ruhl Lecturer at the SOJC, is a columnist for the Miami Herald and author of Becoming Dad: Black Men and the Journey to Fatherhood (1999: Longstreet Press). A 2004 Pulitzer Prize winner for commentary, Pitts writes regularly on pop culture, social issues, and family life in his syndicated column. In 2001, he received from the American Society of Newspaper Editors the ASNE Award for Commentary and was named Feature of the Year Columnist by Editor and Publisher magazine. In 2002, the National Society of Newspaper Columnists awarded Pitts its inaugural Columnist of the Year award. Also in 2002, GLAAD
Media awarded Pitts the Outstanding Newspaper Columnist award. Pitts’ column, “We’ll Go Forward From This Moment,” an angry and defiant open letter to the terrorists in response to the September 11 attacks, circulated the globe via the Internet and has since been set to music, reprinted in poster form, read on television by Regis Philbin, and quoted by Congressman Richard Gephardt as part of the Democratic Party’s weekly radio address. Pitts’ work also has appeared in Musician, Spin, TV Guide, Reader’s Digest, and Parenting.