Black Wealth Magazine

Eugene Robinson

Black Wealth Magazine News

• Wikileaks reveal the obvious dangers of Afghanistan
• Obama needs to stand up to 'reverse racism' ploy
• The Tea Party must purge racism from its ranks
• It's time for Democrats to give up the funk
• Roman Polanski's freedom -- and unmitigated gall

 

 



Coming home: Pulitzer winner says ‘Orangeburg made me who and what I am’

By DIONNE GLEATON, T&D Staff Writer
Sunday, May 10, 2009

Eugene Robinson is glad to be home. He says he has a lot of people to thank for making him the man he is today.

The Orangeburg native most recently became a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist for his commentary on the historic campaign that led to the election of the nation’s first African-American president inBarack Obama.

Robinson started his op-ed column four years ago after a quarter century at The Washington Post that included his work as city editor, foreign correspondent, foreign editor and assistant managing editor for Style. While he is “thrilled” about the award, he’s equally thankful for those who created his early environment conducive to education and encouragement.

He said his chance to speak at Saturday’s commencement exercises for Claflin University, where his mother, Louisa, served as head librarian, was a platform to show appreciation for his hometown.

“Having won this honor for columns that I wrote about the presidential campaign in which an African-American president was elected … is really special to me. We scheduled the Claflin commencement speech long before we won this award. That is just really befitting to be able to come home. Orangeburg made me who and what I am for better or worse. It’s just a really special place to grow up,” Robinson said.

“Not every memory I have of Orangeburg is rose petals … but it was a great place to grow up. To be able to come to Orangeburg and say ‘thank you’ to the city and to the people like my mother and the other mothers and fathers who raised me and tried to keep me in line is just a privilege,” he said.

He said while he couldn’t believe the news when his editor first called him about having won The Post’s only Pulitzer Prize this year, he was “elated and a bit in shock” when reality sunk in. He still keeps his win “in perspective,” and realizes someone else could have captured the honor.

Robinson credits his upbringing in the college community of Orangeburg with two nurturing parents as having prepared him to become a successful journalist.

“My mother was the head librarian here at Claflin the whole time I was growing up. My father (Harold) taught for a while at Claflin before he worked for … the Social Security Administration and opened up a Social Security Office here. When I was growing up, it seemed like most of the adults I knew had some connection with … South Carolina State. In essence, that simply meant a pretty bookish, intellectual upbringing. There were always books around, and there were always people reading to me,” Robinson said.

“There were always people around who followed current events and who had knowledge of the world. … I didn’t know when I went off to college that I was going to be a journalist. I thought I wanted to be an architect,” said Robinson, who realized his passion for journalism after working for the school’s newspaper.

He has that growing up near the end of the Jim Crow era had some influence on his future career as a journalist.

“First, overall I think it was a great motivator. As I said, I kind of grew up in the atmosphere more or less of a college town. Obviously, it was adults I was around. I’d hear all kinds of ethos of excellence, of not accepting the notion that you had any limitations or that your ambition was in any way circumscribed. That gave me a certain … confidence and a certain motivation to provide that to anyone who thought otherwise,” he said.

An essay he wrote during his freshman year at the University of Michigan on the Orangeburg Massacre went on to win an award in a campus-wide writing contest.

“That was a powerful piece of reinforcement that encouraged me to stick with this new path that I was in the process of choosing,” said Robinson, who has said he didn’t wrestle with being a black journalist covering a black presidential candidate. He said his race possibly added more of an in-depth, comprehensive perspective to his Pulitzer-winning commentary.

“I think there were times during the campaign when I felt other journalists were looking in the wrong places, or asking questions in the wrong way. And, I think it was useful to not go down those paths,” said Robinson, who previously referenced questions by others about whether Obama is “black enough.”

“I just thought it was funny. What is that supposed to mean? That’s kind of a meaningless question for most people. … That’s just one example of wasted effort. I think experience probably gave me a sophisticated understanding. … There were other times that I think it probably helped and probably gave me some insight, too, that maybe not everybody has,” Robinson said.

He scoffs at criticism that his writing about the Obama campaign may have been skewed, particularly after he called his own parents on election night to rejoice in Obama’s victory.

“I worked as a straight news reporter for the better part of 30 years before I started doing a column. But now, I have the luxury of writing an opinion column. So, my opinion is part of the deal. I never endorsed a candidate in the primary or in the general election. I don’t think anyone who read my column was confused about the fact that I thought Barack Obama was an extraordinary candidate and that I thought, in general, less of the people he was running against. But that was my opinion, and it’s just my job now to provide opinion and analysis. I would have done some things differently I’m sure if I was a straight news reporter, but I’m not,” he said.

His father died Jan. 2 at the age of 92. Robinson credits him solely for helping shape his approach to life and work.

“I always tell people I always thought my father was the smartest person I knew and have ever known. He really was. He knew so much about so many things. I think a lot of the way I approach life, and certainly the way I approach my work, has been kind of an attempt to learn as much as he had learned and to focus on as many different things in an interesting way as he did. He was an extraordinary man … and I’m so thankful for having had him for that time,” he said.

T&D Staff Writer Dionne Gleaton can be reached by e-mail at dgleaton@timesanddemocrat.com or by phone at 803-533-5534. Discuss this and other stories online at TheTandD.com.