Rebecca Diane McWhorter is an American journalist, commentator and author who has written extensively about race and the history of
civil rightsCivil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...
. Her book,
Carry Me Home: Birmingham, Alabama, the Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights RevolutionCarry Me Home: Birmingham, Alabama, the Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights Revolution, written by Diane McWhorter and published by Simon & Schuster in 2001, won the J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize and the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction...
(Simon & Schuster, 2001), was awarded the
Pulitzer Prize for General Non-FictionThe Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction has been awarded since 1962 for a distinguished book of non-fiction by an American author that is not eligible for consideration in another category.-1960s:...
and the
J. Anthony Lukas Book PrizeThe J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize is an annual award in the amount of $10,000 given to a book that exemplifies, "literary grace, a commitment to serious research and social concern.” The prize is given by the Nieman Foundation and by the Columbia University School of Journalism. The prize is named...
in 2002.
She is also the author of
A Dream of Freedom, a young adult history of the civil rights movement (Scholastic, 2004). She is a long-time contributor to The
New York Times and has written for the op-ed page of
USA TODAYUSA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
, Slate, and many other publications. McWhorter is a member of the Board of Contributors for
USA TODAYUSA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
's Forum Page, part of the newspaper’s Opinion section.
She is originally from
Birmingham, AlabamaBirmingham is the largest city in Alabama. The city is the county seat of Jefferson County. According to the 2010 United States Census, Birmingham had a population of 212,237. The Birmingham-Hoover Metropolitan Area, in estimate by the U.S...
and now lives in
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
with her two children Isabel and Lucy.
She graduated from Wellesley College in 1974, after attending The Brooke Hill School in Birmingham.
Diane McWhorter is a Holtzbrinck Fellow at the
American Academy in BerlinThe American Academy in Berlin is a research and cultural institution in Berlin whose stated mission is to foster a greater understanding and dialogue between the people of the United States and the people of Germany.The American Academy was founded in September 1994 by a group of prominent...
, Germany, for Fall 2007.