Hank Klibanoff

Hank Klibanoff is an award-winning journalist and author best known for his historical nonfiction works, particularly his Pulitzer Prize-winning collaboration with co-author James E. Scott, The Race Beat: The Press, the Civil Rights Struggle and the Awakening of a Nation. Klibanoff is also a veteran reporter and editor, who has worked for major media outlets such as The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the Philadelphia Inquirer, both of which provided the topics for his two most successful books.

Klibanoff was born to a Jewish family in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1952. He attended Temple University, where he studied journalism, and it was there that his passion for history - specifically civil rights - was first ignited. After receiving his Bachelor of Arts degree, Klibanoff began his journalism career in 1974 at the Philadelphia Bulletin, where he would later become a reporter and editor.

He moved on to become the associate editor of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution from 1981 to 1999. During his tenure there, Klibanoff wrote articles about the civil rights movement both in Atlanta, and throughout the country. Klibanoff later became the deputy managing editor of the Philadelphia Inquirer from 1999 to 2003.

In 2006, Klibanoff published his first book, Buried in the Bitter Waters: The Hidden History of Racial Cleansing in America, which revealed the systematic racial cleansing that had occurred in the United States from 1880-1930. The book was significant for its meticulous documentation of hundreds of incidents of racial cleansing that had occurred and gone largely unreported.

Klibanoff later collaborated with James E. Scott on his Pulitzer Prize-winning work, The Race Beat: The Press, the Civil Rights Struggle and the Awakening of a Nation, which was published in 2006. The book documents the central role the media played in bringing attention to the civil rights struggle in the 1950s and 1960s. In 2010, Klibanoff also published The Race Beat: The Long, Awkward Struggle for Racial Equality in America.

In 2006, Klibanoff was the recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for explanatory reporting along with co-author Scott for The Race Beat. He was also awarded the 2009 Emmy for Outstanding Investigative Reporting for his investigation into racial segregation in public housing communities in the United States. In addition, Klibanoff has won numerous other awards from esteemed organizations such as the Society of Professional Journalists and the National Headliner Awards.

Klibanoff is currently a professor in the Department of Journalism at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. He is also an active member of the faculty at the South Asian Journalists Association, which serves the many journalists of South Asian descent who are based in the United States.

Hank Klibanoff is an award-winning journalist and author whose body of work has vastly increased levels of public knowledge and awareness on a range of civil rights issues. His passion for history and his dedication to reporting have made him a revered figure in journalism and literature. He has expanded the public understanding of the civil rights struggle beyond tracts of history, and is an inspiring example of dedication, passion and hard work.