Brandi Kellam, an investigative journalist with the Virginia Center for Investigative Journalism (VCIJ) at WHRO, and Louis Hansen, an editor and investigative journalist at VCIJ, recently accepted the 2024 Paul Tobenkin Memorial Award in the category of "Series of Stories" for the reporting contained in “Uprooted: An Eminent Domain Documentary.” The Paul Tobenkin Award, named in honor of the late New York Herald Tribune reporter, recognizes outstanding achievements in reporting on racial or religious hatred, intolerance, or discrimination in the United States.
In an address at Columbia Journalism School's Journalism Day 2024 in May, Kellam and Hansen spoke to journalism students about their reporting and careers. The series tells the nearly forgotten story of a college expansion like the ones that broke up Black communities across Virginia and the country. Kellam said it was an honor to report on a university near her home in the Tidewater region of Virginia where she had used sports facilities to compete as a young athlete.
"As journalists, we will bring change. The stories are out there. Go get them."Louis Hansen Senior Editor Virginia Center for Investigative Journalism at WHRO
Hansen shared that much of his reporting for the story took place in law libraries learning about the history of eminent domain laws in Virginia, but he was also able to talk with family members from families whose relatives were displaced by the college expansion. The investigative series has resulted in the Commonwealth of Virginia creating the Uprooted Commission to further investigate the land seizures — something that Hansen said has made the reporters incredibly proud.
As he congratulated Columbia’s journalism students on their dedication to the craft, he warned them of troubles they may face in their career, as he has. But the criticisms, assaults, and even being shot at are all worth it, Hansen said, when journalists’ stories bring about change.
He shared a moving example of the type of life-changing impacts one reporter’s work can have as he recalled one of his stories on a local 15-year-old who received the longest sentence given to a child for non-homicide crime after robbing the house of a drug dealer.
Watch Hansen’s speech (40 minute mark) to hear his incredible story.