Moneta Sleet, Jr.: Pulitzer Prize Photojournalist

Photojournalists often make decisions instantly and the resulting photograph can become the powerful and memorable record of a moment—or a movement. Moneta Sleet, Jr., born in Owensboro, Kentucky, in 1926, received his first camera at the age of nine. This retrospective collection of more than 100 photographs, drawn largely from images Sleet shot for Johnson Publishing, divides his work into six sections: The era of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; the Civil Rights Movement; Africa; Photo Essays; Portraits; and Children. It was Sleet's gripping picture of Coretta Scott King and her youngest daughter, Bernice, at Dr. King's funeral that earned him the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography in 1969—the first African American to be so honored. The photographs of Moneta Sleet Jr. remain models of excellence.