Wendell Lee Rawls Jr. (born August 18, 1941, in

Goodlettsville, Tennessee Goodlettsville is a city in Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson and Sumner County, Tennessee, Sumner Counties in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It was incorporated as a city in 1958 with a population of just over 3,000 residents; in 2020, its popul ...

) is a

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prizes () are 23 annual awards given by Columbia University in New York City for achievements in the United States in "journalism, arts and letters". They were established in 1917 by the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made his fo ...

-winning investigative reporter and editor. His career spans 40 years in journalism and media, beginning in 1967 at '' The (Nashville) Tennessean''.

Life

Raised in the

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...

, area and in

Red Bank, Tennessee Red Bank is a city in Hamilton County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 11,899 at the 2020 census. Red Bank is an enclave, being entirely surrounded by the city limits of Chattanooga, Tennessee, Chattanooga. Red Bank is part of the Cha ...

, Rawls is a graduate of

Baylor School Baylor School, commonly called Baylor, is a private school, private, coeducational college-preparatory school in Chattanooga, Tennessee, United States. Founded in 1893, the school's current campus comprises 690 acres and enrolls students in grad ...

Chattanooga Chattanooga ( ) is a city in Hamilton County, Tennessee, United States, and its county seat. It is located along the Tennessee River and borders Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the south. With a population of 181,099 in 2020, it is Tennessee ...

Tennessee Tennessee (, ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina t ...

, and

Vanderbilt University Vanderbilt University (informally Vandy or VU) is a private university, private research university in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Founded in 1873, it was named in honor of shipping and railroad magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provide ...

. He is often known by the nickname "Sonny." Rawls was the first national correspondent at ''

The Philadelphia Inquirer ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'', often referred to simply as ''The Inquirer'', is a daily newspaper headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded on June 1, 1829, ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'' is the third-longest continuously operating da ...

'' (where he won the

Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting Pulitzer may refer to: *Joseph Pulitzer, a 19th century media magnate *Pulitzer Prize, an annual U.S. journalism, literary, and music award *Pulitzer (surname) * Pulitzer, Inc., a U.S. newspaper chain *Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, a non-pro ...

in 1977); was a Washington correspondent and then Southern Bureau chief for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

''; and assistant managing editor for news at ''

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution ''The Atlanta Journal-Constitution'' (''AJC'') is an American daily newspaper based in metropolitan area of Atlanta, Georgia. It is the flagship publication of Cox Enterprises. The ''Atlanta Journal-Constitution'' is the result of the merger ...

''. He also won the National Headliner Award for Outstanding Public Service, the

Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award The Robert F. Kennedy Awards for Excellence in Journalism is a journalism award named after Robert F. Kennedy and awarded by the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights. The annual awards are issued in several categories and were est ...

Grand Prize, the Heywood Broun Journalism Award, and several other awards. While he was an editor in Atlanta, his staff produced a Pulitzer Prize winner, and four additional Pulitzer Prize finalists in two years. In 2005, he became managing director of the Center for Public Integrity, an investigative nonprofit organization in

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

, and in May 2006 became its executive director before returning to teaching. Rawls was a professor in the School of Journalism at

Middle Tennessee State University Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU or MT) is a Public university, public research university in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Founded in 1911 as a normal school, the university consists of eight Undergraduate education, undergraduate colleges as ...

from 2000 until his retirement in 2015, and occupied the Seigenthaler Chair of Excellence in First Amendment Studies at MTSU in 2001. In 2009, he taught at

, and in 2016 was inducted into the Vanderbilt Student Media Hall of Fame. He has written for magazines, motion pictures and episodic television (''

Law & Order ''Law & Order'' is an American police procedural and legal drama television series created by Dick Wolf and produced by Wolf Entertainment and Universal Television, launching the ''Law & Order'' franchise. ''Law & Order'' aired its entire ...

''), and produced several television movies.

Works

*''Cold Storage'', Simon and Schuster, 1980,

References

External links

The Center for Public IntegrityCivil Rights Greensboro: Wendell Rawls, Jr.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rawls, Wendell 1941 births Living people American male journalists The Philadelphia Inquirer people Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting winners Vanderbilt University alumni Middle Tennessee State University faculty The New York Times journalists American newspaper editors The Atlanta Journal-Constitution people People from Goodlettsville, Tennessee People from Red Bank, Tennessee