MLK50: Justice Through Journalism won four awards during the National Association of Black Journalists’ 2025 Salute to Excellence Awards gala in Cleveland, Ohio, on Aug. 9.
The awards — announced during NABJ’s annual convention — were given across four categories, for newsrooms with staffs of 50 or fewer. Youth life and justice reporter Rebecca Cadenhead won two awards; her series of stories on the state’s blended sentencing laws earned a prize, as did her feature story about a summer school in Mississippi inspired by the civil rights era Freedom Schools.
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“I’m grateful and very surprised,” said Cadenhead. “I also have excellent editing from [co-executive director] Adrienne Johnson Martin and [managing editor] Charity Scott to thank.”
In the specialty category, freelance health and science writer Katti Gray won for her story about how Black women are twice as likely to die of breast cancer as white women, and the Memphis survivors fighting to reverse that trend. Georgetown professor and Memphis native Zandria F. Robinson was honored for her essay “Tyré Nichols had a beautiful life.”
This story is brought to you byMLK50: Justice Through Journalism, a nonprofit newsroom focused on poverty, power and policy in Memphis. Support independent journalism by making a tax-deductible donation today. MLK50 is also supported by these generous donors.