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Gene Roberts

MARS HILL ó Gene Roberts, winner of the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for History, will give the commencement address at Mars Hill Collegeís winter graduation exercises 5 p.m. Friday in Moore Auditorium. Roberts is a 1951 MHC graduate.

The college will confer degrees on approximately 70 graduates, and will also award an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree to Roberts. Commencement will be preceded at 3 p.m. by a reception for graduates and their guests.

Roberts, a professor at the University of Marylandís Merrill College of Journalism, and co-author Hank Klibanoff won the Pulitzer for their book ìThe Race Beat: The Press, the Civil Rights Struggle, and the Awakening of a Nation.î

ìThe Race Beatî examines how the nationís press, after decades of ignoring the problem, came to recognize the importance of the civil-rights struggle and turn it into the most significant domestic news event of the 20th century. Both Roberts and Klibanoff spent the early years of their careers covering the South.

A native of Goldsboro, Roberts reported for the Goldsboro News-Argus, the Virginian Pilot, The (Raleigh) News & Observer and the Detroit Free Press before joining The New York Times in 1965 and becoming its chief Southern and civil-rights correspondent.

Klibanoff grew up in Alabama and reported for what is now the Sun Herald and other, smaller papers in Mississippi.
Roberts joined Merrill College in 1991 after serving 18 years as executive editor of the Philadelphia Inquirer, where his staff won 17 Pulitzer Prizes.

He took a leave of absence from 1994 to 1997 to serve as managing editor of The New York Times. In 1993, he won the National Press Clubís Fourth Estate Award for Distinguished Contributions to Journalism.

This will be the fourth year MHC has held commencement in December for graduates who completed their degree requirements in August or December. Degrees will be awarded in five areas: Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Fine Arts, Bachelor of Music, Bachelor of Science, and Bachelor of Social Work.