Mother Jones, Reveal, Center for Public Integrity Selected as Pulitzer Prize Finalist for Explanatory Reporting
Honor Comes One Year After Organization’s Merger; Recognizes Investigation of Government Program That Gave Land to 1,250 Formerly Enslaved People—And Then Took It Back
The nonprofit news organization that produces Mother Jones and Reveal was selected as a Pulitzer Prize finalist for a collaborative investigation with the Center for Public Integrity about a government program that gave—and then took away—land to more than 1,200 formerly enslaved people in the South immediately after the Civil War. The honor comes a year after the San Francisco–based Mother Jones and Reveal merged their newsrooms.
“This honor speaks to the power of newsroom collaborations, and the tenacity of a team of journalists who persevered through two years of research and reporting just as one of the partner organizations fell on hard times financially,” said Monika Bauerlein, CEO of the Center for Investigative Reporting, which produces Mother Jones and Reveal. “We could not have pulled this series off without the merger of Mother Jones and Reveal and the added wisdom and capacity it created. Immense credit goes to the Center for Public Integrity, which doggedly pursued this reporting, and through grit and determination brought to light a story that had been buried for more than 150 years.”
The Pulitzer Prize board selected “40 Acres and a Lie” as a finalist in the Explanatory Reporting category for the two-and-a-half-year investigation and multimedia collaboration with Center for Public Integrity. Reporters used artificial intelligence to analyze millions of records from the Reconstruction-era Freedmen’s Bureau, and later they were able to track down dozens of living descendants, several of whom were unaware of their ancestors’ land being taken away.
The discovery is significant because it was largely assumed that the post–Civil War “40 Acres and a Mule” promise was just that—a promise, never fulfilled. But the investigation confirmed that there was in fact a program, that land was transferred to formerly enslaved men and women—and then cruelly taken away again, depriving those families of building wealth over succeeding generations.
“These stories remind us of a dark history in our country and offer a candid discussion about what is owed and what we need to continue to guard against,” said Jennifer LaFleur, one of the project’s editors, who worked at the Center for Public Integrity. “I’m grateful to the Center for Public Integrity, Reveal, and Mother Jones for making it possible. I hope other journalists and historians use the records to discover more stories.”
“40 Acres and a Lie” consisted of six written stories and three podcast episodes that were published in June 2024 on Mother Jones’ website and aired on Reveal. It received extensive coverage by outside news organizations, including CNN, PBS, and NPR. The “40 Acres and a Lie” series also won a duPont-Columbia Award, a National Magazine Award, and an Investigative Reporters & Editors Award.
“Without our merger CIR would not have survived, and the staffers from CPI and our merged newsrooms overcame great adversity to get this work done,” said Robert J. Rosenthal, CEO Emeritus of the Center for Investigative Reporting. “The recognition exemplifies the character of journalists and why their role is so crucial at this moment.”
Reporters and producers involved in the collaboration include Alexia Fernández Campbell, April Simpson, Pratheek Rebala, Nadia Hamdan, Wesley Lowery, Roy Hurst, and Steven Rascón; editors Cynthia Rodriguez, Jennifer LaFleur, Mc Nelly Torres, and Jamilah King; host Al Letson; composers and sound designers Jim Briggs and Fernando Arruda; executive producers Brett Myers and Taki Telonidis; executive editor James West; and editor-in-chief Clara Jeffery. Reveal is broadcast weekly on more than 500 radio stations, and is distributed by PRX.
The Center for Public Integrity laid off a significant number of staff in March 2024, and formally closed its doors in March 2025. But reporting on “40 Acres and a Lie” continued because of a contribution from the Wyncote Foundation.
The Center for Investigative Reporting has been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize five times: in 2020 for a report about Amazon warehouse employees; in 2019 for an investigation about housing discrimination by the banking system; in 2018 for exposing a drug rehabilitation program at poultry plants; in 2013, with its California Watch project, for a report about violence in homes for developmentally disabled people; and in 2012, also with California Watch, for a probe about California public schools’ lack of earthquake protections. The Center for Public Integrity won a Pulitzer Prize in 2014 for an investigation into doctors denying benefits to coal miners with black lung disease, and they were part of a consortium of international news organizations that won in 2017 for exposing the global scale of offshore tax havens.
