Birmingham Podcasters Named Finalists For Pulitzer Prize

BIRMINGHAM, AL — What started as a hopeful project by two journalism professors at the University of Alabama became a Pulitzer Prize finalist this week. Chip Brantley and Andy Grace released their NPR podcast "White Lies" last year investigating the murder of James Reeb in Selma during he Civil Rights era, and found themselves as finalists in the "Audio Reporting" category.

Although the Pulitzer in the category went to Ira Glass for "This American Life," Brantley and Grace have the distinction of being one of the first-ever finalists in the new category.

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Brantley and Grace embarked on the investigation four years ago after hearing about the murder and realizing its historical significance.

Reeb, 38, was a white Unitarian-Universalist minister who lived and worked in Boston's black neighborhoods and was passionate about social justice. He had been on the staff of the American Friends Service Committee, aiding low-income families in Boston, when the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. invited clergy to Selma after Bloody Sunday, according to the Associated Press. Reeb headed to Alabama, despite warnings of how dangerous it could be for him.

Shortly after Reeb arrived, he and two other ministers were attacked, and Reeb died as a result of his injuries. There was a trial, but the all-white jury acquitted the men. The FBI reopened the case in 2011.

Brantley and Grace pursued Bill Portwood, a man whose name was mentioned in the trial that acquitted suspects Stanley Hoggle, Namon O'Neal "Duck" Hoggle and Elmer Cook. Portwood admitted to being part of the attack on Reeb in the sixth episode of the podcast, although his memory was not clear and his health was failing during the time Brantley and Grace were conducting their interviews. Portwood died in 2017 after a series of strokes.

"The story in White Lies tells us so much about who we have been and who we are," Brantley said. "It's hard to hear the story of Jim Reeb's murder and think, 'Oh, that was just those horrible people over there, back then.' Those people are still a lot of us now."