Lee Hawkins

Academic Year 2026-2027
Hutchins Family Foundation Fellow
Lee Hawkins dressed in sitting backwards on a chair and looking at the photographer with glasses in hand

Lee Hawkins is a journalist, 2022 Pulitzer Prize finalist, and author of I Am Nobody’s Slave: How Uncovering My Family’s History Set Me Free (HarperCollins 2025). He is also the creator and host of What Happened in Alabama and Unlocking the Gates: How the North Led Housing Discrimination in America, both audio series he co-produced with American Public Media and APM's Marketplace.

Fellowship Project

Lee will complete a series investigating the persistence and legacy of corporal punishment in American schools, paying particular attention to its disproportionate use on Black children and students with disabilities.