Author, journalist, and Pulitzer Prize finalist Lee Hawkins will discuss his memoir, I Am Nobody's Slave: How Uncovering My Family’s History Set Me Free, during a virtual chat and question and answer session on Tuesday, February 18 at 2:00pm. 

To their suburban Minnesotan neighbors, the Hawkins’ were an ideal American family, embodying strength and success but, behind closed doors, they faced the legacy of enslavement and apartheid. Lee Hawkins, Sr. often exhibited rage, leaving his children anxious and curious about his protective view of the world. Thirty years later, his son uncovered the reasons for his father’s anxiety and occasional violence. I Am Nobody’s Slave tells the story of one Black family's pursuit of the American Dream through the impacts of systemic racism and racial violence as well as examines how trauma from enslavement and Jim Crow shaped their outlook on thriving in America, influenced each generation, and how they overcame challenges.

 

Hawkins is a 2022 Pulitzer Prize finalist as a lead reporter on a series for the Wall Street Journal about the Tulsa Massacre of 1921. He was the recipient of the Carter Center’s Rosalynn Carter Fellowship for Mental Health Journalism, the Alicia Patterson Foundation Journalism Fellowship, the O’Brien Fellowship for Public Service Journalism, and the USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism National Fellowship for reporting on child well-being. Additionally, Hawkins is a five-time winner of the National Association of Black Journalists’ “Salute to Excellence” Award and the creator and host of the podcast “What Happened in Alabama?”

 

Register now and submit questions to be part of the discussion.