Hank Klibanoff

Journalist

• Born: March 26, 1949
• Birthplace: Florence, Alabama

Contribution: Hank Klibanoff is an award-winning journalist and professor of journalism best known for his Pulitzer Prize–winning book The Race Beat (2006), for his time on the editorial staff of the Philadelphia Inquirer (1982–2002), and for his efforts to solve civil rights–era cold cases.

Background

Hank Klibanoff was born on March 26, 1949, in Florence, Alabama, a small city in the northeast of the state. Klibanoff attended Coffee High School and took an early interest in journalism. One of Klibanoff’s first jobs was delivering newspapers for a local paper in Florence.

Klibanoff obtained a BA in English from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, and went on to receive his MS in Journalism from the Medill School of Journalism, Media, and Integrated Marketing Communications at Northwestern University in Chicago.

Career

Klibanoff began his journalistic career in Mississippi working for the Sun-Herald on the Mississippi Gulf Coast while also writing for the Delta Democrat Times in Greenville. In 1978, after a year traveling in Europe and working as a freelance journalist, Klibanoff was hired by the Boston Globe, where he worked for more than two years.

In 1982, Klibanoff joined the Philadelphia Inquirer, which was then considered one of the finest newspapers in the country. In 1984, Klibanoff was appointed to serve as the Midwest correspondent for the paper, working primarily out of Chicago but covering a large twelve-state region. During his time in the Midwest, Klibanoff distinguished himself through a series of insightful articles about the collapse of the Midwest farm economy. Klibanoff also published a series of noted articles about the campaign of Harold Washington, the first African American mayor of Chicago.

After returning to Philadelphia to become an editor at the Philadelphia Inquirer, Klibanoff worked in a variety of positions, including business editor and deputy managing editor. During this same period, Klibanoff also taught courses in urban journalism at the University of Pennsylvania and was awarded a fellowship from the Freedom Forum’s Media Studies Center at Columbia University in New York.

From 2002 to 2008, Klibanoff worked as managing editor of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. During this time, Klibanoff and coauthor Gene Roberts won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for History for their book The Race Beat: The Press, the Civil Rights Struggle, and the Awakening of a Nation. Klibanoff and Roberts were colleagues at the Philadelphia Inquirer during the 1980s and both grew up amid the contentious civil rights struggle in the South. The Race Beat covers the early development of the civil rights movement as reflected by both the black and white press corps around the nation.

Klibanoff and Roberts spent more than sixteen years working on the book, studying thousands of documents, including articles, personal letters, editorial reports, and the notes of journalists working during this period. The Race Beat traces the evolution of the journalistic approach to the civil rights issue, from the 1930s through the 1960s. Klibanoff and Roberts found that the white press in many parts of the country was, at first, largely indifferent to the civil rights issue, and they chart the evolution of the journalistic attitude to the issue. Eventually, the mainstream press became the champion of civil rights, helping to create awareness of the issue in parts of the country that were distant from areas where civil rights was a major, local concern.

In addition to the Pulitzer Prize, The Race Beat won the Goldsmith Book Prize from the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics, and Public Policy at Harvard University. The book was also named book of the year by the American Journalism Historians Association.

After leaving the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Klibanoff worked with the Cold Case Truth and Justice Project (later renamed the Civil Rights Cold Case Project), a multimedia journalistic and historical effort to investigate unsolved murders that occurred during the civil rights struggle of the 1950s and 1960s. The project is supervised by the Center for Investigative Reporting and involves a collaboration between journalists, public-interest advocacy groups, lawyers, and archivists to investigate racial murders that occurred during this period. Those working on the project hope to address some of the myths and miscarriages of justice that occurred and, if possible, to allow prosecution of offenders. Klibanoff eventually became its managing editor.

In 2010, Klibanoff was appointed the James M. Cox Jr. Professor of Journalism at Emory University. History and ethics were major focuses of his approach to teaching, and he has stated his belief that maintaining journalistic ethics and professionalism are key to helping the media adjust to the economic difficulties of the modern marketplace.

In the 2000s and early 2010s Klibanoff also served as a volunteer for and board member of VOX Teen Communication, an after-school journalism program that helps participating Atlanta youth learn about various aspects of journalism by helping the students publish a website and monthly newspaper.

Klibanoff subsequently became the journalism program director at the Emory Center for Ethics as well as a professor of practice in Emory's English Department and Creative Writing Program. He has also served as director of Georgia Civil Rights Cold Cases Project and cotaught classes there with project cofounder Brett Gadsen.

As an outgrowth of his work with the Cold Cases Project, Klibanoff created, cowrote, and hosted the true-crime podcast Buried Truths, the first six-episode season of which was released in 2018. The show won a Peabody Award for Radio/Podcast and a Robert F. Kennedy Award for radio journalism, both in 2019.

Impact

Throughout his career, Klibanoff has focused on issues of race and politics as they apply to the journalism industry around the United States. Both through his research for The Race Beat and his work with the Cold Case Truth and Justice Project, Klibanoff has helped to address the role that journalism has played in both enabling and combating racism in the United States. As Klibanoff has shifted his career from journalist and editor to historian and author, he is helping to provide valuable insights into the history and cultural evolution of investigative journalism. In recognition of his contributions, Klibanoff received the 2014 Distinguished Alumni Award from Washington University and was inducted into the Atlanta Press Club Hall of Fame in 2015.

Personal Life

Klibanoff and his wife, speech therapist Laurie Leonard, have three daughters: Corinne, Eleanor, and Caroline.

Principal Works

The Race Beat, 2007

Bibliography

“AJC Managing Editor Hank Klibanoff Steps Down.” Atlanta Business Chronicle. American City Business Journals, 24 June 2008. Web. 26 June 2013.

Arsenault, Raymond. “The News from Little Rock.” Rev. of The Race Beat. New York Times. New York Times, 21 Jan. 2007. Web. 26 June 2013.

“Biography: Mr. Hank Klibanoff.” Pulitzer Prize Winners Workshop. Hong Kong Baptist University, 2007. Web. 17 Mar. 2013.

“Georgia Authors: Hank Klibanoff.” Georgia Center for the Book. Georgia Center for the Book, 2013. Web. 26 June 2013.