LEE HAWKINS

Speaker + Pulitzer Prize Finalist Journalist and Author + PODCAST CREATOR and Host

Located near: Boston, Massachusetts (2026-2027 academic year)

BOOK LEE HAWKINS TO SPEAK AT YOUR EVENT

Event types

Keynotes ● lectures ● Fireside Chats ● Panels
Workshops ● COMMUNITY SEMINARS ● Professional development ● book talks & Readings ● Virtual events ● Moderation ● International events
Festivals ● interviews

Speaking topics

Intergenerational Trauma: Knowledge of our past makes healing possible

American History: Confronting Our Nation’s Hard Truths While Honoring Its Greatest Ideals

Black American Descendants of Slavery
Jim Crow apartheid History & Survivors
Intergenerational Impacts of Racism
Integration in America, from mid-60s to Present

Health Inequality & Solutions
Mental Health
Effects of Childhood Trauma
Genealogy & Family Dynamics

Investigative Journalism
Lessons from Business, finance, and Publicly Traded companies
Lessons from Top Celebrities & Newsmakers

Popular Talk themes

how genealogy can heal bloodlines and offer families mired by “no contact” a pathway to renewed contact and unification

Using Genealogy As a Tool of Healing and Empowerment, Across Races and Backgrounds

Adopting Nonviolent Social Change in our Homes, Schools and Communities

Adapting, Transforming, and Leading: A Blueprint for Corporate Success Amid America’s Demographic Revolution

Acknowledging and Celebrating the Inspiring Stories of Black American Descendants of Slavery

Acknowledging and Telling the Stories of Jim Crow Apartheid History & Survivors

LEE HAWKINS’s bio

Through fearless storytelling and deep historical research, Pulitzer Prize finalist journalist and author Lee Hawkins offers a powerful and original voice—one committed to truth, healing, and national and global reckoning. Mr. Hawkins has reported across print, audio, and video, and conducted high-profile interviews with influential newsmakers. An intergenerational trauma expert, his work blends historical inquiry with cultural and emotional clarity. He uses DNA analysis, genealogical research, and oral history to investigate America’s buried truths. His critically acclaimed memoir, I Am Nobody’s Slave: How Uncovering My Family’s History Set Me Free, is an introspective journey into his family history, tracing its roots to pre-Revolutionary America. Utilizing genetic testing, investigative reporting, and historical documentation, Mr. Hawkins explores 400 years of his family’s lineage, revealing the intertwined lives of Black and White families, their resilience and sufferings, and the impact of historical trauma. The book’s personal exploration serves as a broader commentary on the importance of genealogical research in healing and bridging racial divides in contemporary America.

The audiobook of I Am Nobody’s Slave was nominated for a 2026 Audie Award for Narration by the Author, and the book was also nominated for the 2026 NAACP Award for Outstanding Literary Work (Non-Fiction). Upon its release, I Am Nobody’s Slave received a starred review from Kirkus calling it “harrowing and insightful… A profound work about the Black experience and white oppression.” It received another starred review from Library Journal with a verdict that “This work is vitally important and essential to understanding the magnitude of the impact of racism and violence.” I Am Nobody’s Slave was also named a Black History Month pick by Oprah Daily and Oprah’s Book Club, selected as an Amazon “Editor’s Pick” and “Best History Book,” chosen as a 2025 McKinsey Global Publishing Pick, and praised by Essence as “a great read for those seeking healing.” Booklist described it as “gripping, thought-provoking, and personal,” and the Christian Science Monitor called it “a liberation movement worth reading about and practicing.” Endorsements include Deborah Watts, cousin of Emmett Till and co-founder of the Emmett Till Legacy Foundation, who called the book “transformative.” Arthur McFarlane II, great-grandson of W.E.B. Du Bois, said it inspired him to reclaim his own family history. Dr. Terrence Roberts of the Little Rock Nine praised Hawkins for his courage in telling the unflinching truth: “His narrative provides insights into why we have been reluctant to embrace the truth of who we are.”

Recently named an esteemed 2026-2027 W.E.B. Du Bois Research Institute Fellow at Harvard’s Hutchins Center for African & African American Research, Mr. Hawkins will be at work on Learning Under Threat: Corporal Punishment and Black Children in the Classroom, a long-form narrative audio investigation that reconnects discipline records to adult lives and explores how corporal punishment is administered, defended and normalized inside schools today. He will also investigate the persistence and legacy of corporal punishment in American Public Schools as a 2026-2027 Spencer Education Fellow at Columbia Journalism School. Currently the host of a bold new financial podcast called Must Be the Money featuring candid conversations with athletes, entrepreneurs, investors, and creators about wealth, business, and economic empowerment, Mr. Hawkins is also the Series Creator, Producer, Writer of the 2024 longform podcast series What Happened in Alabama? for American Public Media/Minnesota Public Radio. The series was named one of the “Best Podcasts of the Year” by The Guardian and Amazon/Audible and was “Editor’s Choice” in Audible’s History category. It was ranked #25 on Apple Podcast's "Top Shows" charts, which is based on a combination of listener engagement, follows, and episode completion rates.

Mr. Hawkins is a nationally recognized investigative journalist whose most recent work documents the lives of Black American descendants of slavery and Jim Crow survivors, exposing America's role in imposing a long legacy of racial violence, childhood trauma, and economic injustice. A former longtime reporter for The Wall Street Journal, where he served for 19 years as a reporter, on-camera host, and editor, Hawkins has investigated topics ranging from systemic inequality and educational disparities to the intergenerational effects of land theft, racial covenants, and historically motivated homicides. His co-authored feature “The Dreams of Jack and Daisy Scott” was part of The Wall Street Journal's Pulitzer Prize-finalist package on the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre.

Mr. Hawkins was a 2023–2024 Rosalynn Carter Fellow for Mental Health Journalism and the 2024 Josephine Albright Fellow of the Alicia Patterson Foundation. He also received the 2024 McGraw Fellowship for Business Journalism and was the 2022–2023 O’Brien Fellow for Public Service Journalism at Marquette University. He is a six-time winner of the National Association of Black Journalists' "Salute to Excellence" Award and was a 2018 USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism National Fellow, for reporting on child well-being. He was also named a finalist for the Gerald Loeb Award for Distinguished Business and Financial Journalism, in 2025 and 2021.

Raised in Maplewood, Minnesota and the historic Rondo community of St. Paul, Hawkins has long been a committed advocate for nonviolent social change inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He organized annual MLK birthday marches and received the Martin Luther King Humanitarian Award from Minnesota’s King Holiday Commission. He holds a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he served as editorial page editor of The Badger Herald and twice served on the Board of Visitors of UW’s School of Journalism and Mass Communications.