The Vernon Jarrett Medal for Journalistic Excellence
- Chase Swoope
- May 16, 2023
- 3 min read
Updated: Dec 8, 2023
WASHINGTON, DC - Morgan State University hosts their 8th annual Vernon Jarrett Medal for Journalistic Excellence. The event was held at The National Press Club located in Washington, D.C on April 6, 2023. The medal honors the exemplary reporting on Black life in America. Named after the late Vernon Jarrett “a pioneering African American Columnist” said Dean Jackie Jones from the School of Global Journalism and Communication at Morgan State University. The two journalists honored were Wesley Lowery and Yanick Rice Lamb.
The recipient of the Vernon Jarrett Medal, Wesley Lowery was honored that he was selected to win. Wesley Lowery said, “Anytime I can be honored by other Black journalist in the name of a trail blazing legendary Black journalist, it honestly is one of the biggest potential honors there is.”
Wesley Lowery and Dean Jackie Jones on stage at The National Press Club (Photo by Chase Swoope)
Lowery talks about the work that got him recognized, “This award is being given for my work on a project called “Black City. White Paper.” that looks at the history of the Philadelphia Inquirer.”
You can find Lowery’s work “Black City. White Paper” on the Philadelphia Inquirer website.
The Runner-Up Yanick Rice Lamb is a professor and former chair of the Department of Media, Journalism and Film at Howard University. Lamb explains how she started as a journalist, and the philosophy she uses with her students at Howard University. “I started in college when I was at Ohio State University and I’ve always tried to do the best I can to tell excellent stories, but also tell a lot of untold stories and try to be the best that I can be and to pass that on to my students as well.”
The award is named for Vernon Jarrett, the late columnist for the Chicago Defender, Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times, who was also a founding member and former president of the National Association of Black Journalists. It recognizes “a journalist who has published or broadcast stories that are of significant importance or had a significant impact on some aspect of Black life in America.”
Lowery, who joined Public Integrity’s board in 2021, is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author and contributing editor at the Marshall Project. He will receive a $10,000 prize and a summer intern from Morgan State in recognition of his work on “Black City, White Paper,” an investigation into the Philadelphia Inquirer’s racial reckoning in the wake of George Floyd’s murder.
Lamb, a journalism professor in the Cathy Hughes School of Communications, as well as a doctoral candidate at Howard University, will receive a $7,500 prize in recognition of her investigation last year for Public Integrity and Belt Magazine, “Unintended Consequences: The Rubber Industry’s Toxic Legacy in Akron.”
Morgan State University’s School of Global Journalism and Communication (SGJC) first annual Vernon Jarrett Medal for Journalistic Excellence winner Stacey Patton.
Chase Swoope
Micha Green, Managing Editor for the Washington Former is inspired by not only the two recipients but by her other “heroes and sheroes” in attendance as well. “I’m so inspired by the two journalist who won today. I read their work quite often and so congrats to now Dr. Yanick Lamb as well as Wesley Lowery, just keep doing y’all.”
By Chase Swoope
With Contributions from The Center for Public Integrity, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Morgan State University
Photo, Chase Swoope
Video, MSU School of Global Journalism
Video, Chase Swoope
Audio, Chase Swoope
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