Some questions have arisen about the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary, and to the extent possible within our rules, we’d like to clarify several issues.
The prize was awarded to an essay by Nikole Hannah-Jones that opened The New York Times Magazine's 1619 Project. That essay was selected as one of three finalists by a jury judging entries in the Commentary category. In deciding among the three, the Pulitzer Board considered the Times revision of the piece, the editors’ notes relating to it, and criticisms raised by historians and others.
What's eligible in that category, according to our organization's published standards is "opinion writing containing well-reasoned and compelling argument on a topic or topics of public interest, whether originally researched or reported, informed by personal or analytical experience." While our rules allow the entry of up to 10 articles, a single piece of writing may win in this category and many others.
Although the specifics of Board deliberations on this and other awards are confidential, its conclusions are encapsulated by the citation: "For a sweeping, provocative and personal essay for the ground-breaking 1619 Project, which seeks to place the enslavement of Africans at the center of America’s story, prompting public conversation about the nation’s founding and evolution."
A final note: The above citation was read by Pulitzer Administrator Dana Canedy in the May 4 announcement and distributed afterward in press materials. However, the Board recently discovered that an early draft citation remained in two places on the website. We have since noted and corrected those errors.
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October 13, 2020