Honoring Les Brownlee
The Chicago Headline Club and the Chicago Headline Club Foundation will award a scholarship honoring Les Brownlee to a Chicago-area journalism student next year.
The $3,000 scholarship will be awarded at the Headline Club’s Peter Lisagor Awards dinner, which is scheduled for May 2, 2014.
Brownlee, who died in 2005, was the first African-American member of the Society of Professional Journalists and the first African-American president of the Chicago Headline Club.
Brownlee’s journalism career began as a reporter for Ebony Magazine, followed by the Chicago Defender. In 1950, he was the first black reporter to join the staff of the Chicago Daily News. Over the years he also worked for several radio stations, including WBBM, and television stations including WLS-TV, where in 1975 he won an Emmy Award for editorial writing. After he retired from television, he joined the faculty of Columbia College Chicago, where he taught journalism full-time for more than 20 years and inspired countless students.
The Les Brownlee Scholarship will be available to any qualified undergraduate journalism student at a Chicago-area college. The only requirement is that the applicant must be a current journalism student (no recent graduates). Candidates are assessed by a committee of the Headline Club Foundation and evaluated on their previous experience, clips, cover letter and an interest in pursuing a career in journalism. The scholarship will provide $3,000 to defray the living expenses of a collegiate journalist.
Students need to apply quickly, because the foundation plans to select a winner as soon as possible.
Fo more details, contact Randi Belisomo – rbelisomo@tribune.com