Clarence Page – A Hidden Past Comes to Light

It was supposed to be a routine matter, getting a passport in order to make an overseas journey. But for Clarence Page, that routine matter opened the doors to a long-held family secret that profoundly affected his life.

Clarence Page, the 1989 Pulitzer Prize winner for Commentary, is a columnist syndicated nationally by Tribune Media Services and a member of the Chicago Tribune’s editorial board. Page is also a regular contributor of essays to The News Hour with Jim Lehrer and has been a regular on The McLaughlin Group, NBC’s The Chris Matthews Show, ABC’s Nightline and BET’s Lead Story news panel programs.

Page’s awards include a 1980 Illinois UPI awards for community service for an investigative series titled “The Black Tax” and the Edward Scott Beck Award for overseas reporting in 1976. He also received lifetime achievement awards from the National Society of Newspaper Columnists, the Chicago Headline Club and the National Association of Black Journalists. In 1992, he was inducted into the Chicago Journalism Hall of Fame.

His book Showing My Color: Impolite Essays on Race and Identity was published in 1996 by Harper Collins.

Born in Dayton, Ohio, he grew up in Middletown. He began his journalism career as a freelance writer and photographer for the Middletown Journal and Cincinnati Enquirer at the age of 17. He graduated from Ohio University with a bachelor of science in journalism in 1969. He also has received honorary degrees from Columbia College in Chicago, Lake Forest College, the Chicago Theological Seminary and the John Marshall School of Law, among others.