Leonard Pitts, Jr.

A former writer for Casey Kasem's radio program "American Top 40," Leonard Pitts, Jr. was a pop music critic at the Miami Herald where he began writing about race and current affairs in his own column. Today, his Miami Herald newspaper column on pop culture, social issues and family life is syndicated in more than 150 daily newspapers. A finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 1992, he won the top prize for commentary at the Scripps Howard Foundation’s National Journalism Awards in 2002.

He is also the author of the bestseller, Becoming Dad: Black Men and the Journey to Fatherhood, a poignant account of the nature and meaning of black fatherhood in the contemporary United States.

Pitts’ column has also won awards from the Society of Professional Journalists, the National Association of Black Journalists, the American Association of Sunday and Feature Editors and the Simon Wiesenthal Center, among others. He is a three-time recipient of the National Headliners Award. In 2001, he received the American Society of Newspaper Editors prestigious ASNE Award for Commentary Writing and was named Columnist of the Year 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.