Angelo Henderson, the Pulitzer-Winning Journalist and Detroit Community Leader, Was a Member of Phi Beta Sigma

Did you know that Angelo Henderson, the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who became one of Detroit’s most beloved voices, was a member of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc.?

Angelo B. Henderson was born in 1962 in Louisville, Kentucky. He earned a journalism degree from the University of Kentucky, where he sharpened his craft through a series of internships, and went on to write for several newspapers before joining the Detroit bureau of The Wall Street Journal. There he worked his way from staff writer to senior staff writer to deputy Detroit bureau chief, earning a place writing for the paper’s front page. A respected leader among his peers, he also served as a two-term national parliamentarian and a chapter president of the National Association of Black Journalists.

In 1999, Henderson reached the pinnacle of his profession, winning the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing for a portrait of a druggist driven to violence by his encounters with armed robbery, illustrating the lasting effects of crime. To this day, he remains the only African American reporter to win a Pulitzer Prize at The Wall Street Journal.

Henderson later followed a new calling, trading the newsroom for the microphone as the host of one of Detroit’s most popular radio talk shows, “Your Voice with Angelo Henderson.” He also became a minister, serving in evangelism and outreach at Triumph Church, and he used every platform he had to lift up his city. Alarmed by violence in Detroit’s neighborhoods, he co-founded The Detroit 300, a community patrol group that mobilized residents to help police, support victims, and reject the culture of silence around crime.

Angelo Henderson died on February 15, 2014, at the age of 51. Detroit’s mayor remembered him as one of the city’s strongest voices, noting how his journalism, his ministry, and his community service were all devoted to uplifting others. That lifetime of service reflects the Phi Beta Sigma motto, “Culture for Service and Service for Humanity.”