Les Brownlee Scholarship
The Chicago Headline Club and the Chicago Headline Club Foundation awarded a scholarship honoring Les Brownlee at the 2011 Peter Lisagor Awards dinner.
Alex Katz, a student at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, won the $2,500 grant.
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.
A second Les Brownlee Scholarship will be awarded in 2012. Application details will be posted here in the fall.
For more information, contact Randi Belisomo – rbelisomo@tribune.com