Announcing the 2026 U.S Hillman Prize winners
NEW YORK – The Sidney Hillman Foundation announces today the winners of the 76th annual Hillman Prizes for journalism in service of the common good:
- Book – Michelle Adams, The Containment: Detroit, the Supreme Court, and the Battle for Racial Justice in the North, Farrar, Straus and Giroux
- Newspaper – Lauren Caruba, Marin Wolf, Azul Sordo, Emily Brindley, Michael Hogue and Maria Ramos Pacheco, “Standard of Fear,” The Dallas Morning News
- Magazine – WIRED newsroom, Inside the DOGE Takeover of the Federal Government
- Broadcast – Charlotte Kaufman and Andrew Jarecki, The Alabama Solution, The Alabama Film Project and HBO Documentary Films
- Opinion & Analysis – Lydia Polgreen, “The Great Migration,” The New York Times
- The SEIU Award for Reporting on Racial and Economic Justice – Ginger Thompson and Doris Burke, “Sick in a Hospital Town,” ProPublica
Michelle Adams tells the compelling story of the Supreme Court’s momentous decision in the case of Milliken v. Bradley, in which the justices brought school desegregation to a halt across the North. The “containment” of Blacks to certain disadvantaged neighborhoods and schools happened unofficially, through racially separate real estate brokerages. In The Containment, Adams exposes how this cemented educational inequality in the Northern and Western U.S. and shaped an enduring resistance to affirmative action and civil rights reforms.
The eight-part investigative series “Standard of Fear” describes the widespread collateral damage of new strict abortion laws in Texas, a state that has among the highest maternal and infant mortality rates in the country. The reporting team at The Dallas Morning News shared the stories of young mothers who died because they were denied access to abortion care while carrying stillborn babies; and the doctors who stopped delivering babies or left the state because they could not provide the health care their patients required. As one attorney put it, Texas has “basically legalized malpractice.”
The WIRED newsroom became America’s unofficial headquarters for information about DOGE. In story after story, WIRED chronicled the speed of Elon Musk’s takeover, and the actions of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, which was operating under a veil of secrecy. WIRED broke news that young recruits—some just out of college, or even high school—had been granted access to sensitive government files and payment systems, not just to read them, but to alter them. WIRED’s reporting became a vital source and provided an essential public service, delivering accurate, timely information when even government employees lacked clarity about what was happening.
An insider tip to Charlotte Kaufman and Andrew Jarecki was the spark that ignited what would become a six-year investigation into Alabama’s deadly prison system. Over years of dogged research, the filmmakers exposed corruption, neglect, and violence in The Alabama Solution. Clandestine video—recorded by inmates on contraband cellphones—exposed inhumane conditions and the brutal treatment of prisoners.
Lydia Polgreen separated myth from reality in her columns about migration for The New York Times. She wrote about human movement around the world, whether to flee from political turmoil or seek a better life, cautioning those who are hostile toward immigrants that they may come to regret it. The day will come when the West will compete for the very migrants it now seeks to expel.
Ginger Thompson and Doris Burke of ProPublica are the winners of this year’s SEIU Award for Reporting on Racial and Economic Justice. They reported from the majority African American city of Albany, Georgia whose largest employer is Phoebe Putnam Memorial Hospital. Phoebe describes itself as a world-class hospital, yet Thompson and Burke paint a vivid picture of patient neglect, carelessness, and poor outcomes. “Sick in a Hospital Town” reveals the larger truths about the healthcare system in our country.
This year’s prizes were judged by Jamelle Bouie, columnist for The New York Times; Maria Carrillo, former enterprise editor Tampa Bay Times/Houston Chronicle; Alix Freedman, global editor, Ethics and Standards, Reuters; Harold Meyerson, editor-at-large, The American Prospect; and Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor and publisher, The Nation.
The Sidney Hillman Foundation is also delighted to announce that Jameel Jaffer, executive director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, is the recipient of the 2026 Barrett Award for Public Interest Law. Jaffer is a prominent and influential defender of democratic freedoms against the encroachment of authoritarianism. Under his leadership, the Institute has filed leading lawsuits against Trump administration policies that target free speech, academic freedom, and press freedom.
“Like Sidney Hillman, this year’s prize winners are helping to build a better America,” said Bruce Raynor, President of the Foundation. “Their investigative reporting shines light on wrongs in our society, and reminds us that courageous journalism is a cornerstone of democracy.”
The Sidney Hillman Foundation will host a celebration of the honorees on May 5th in New York.
About the Hillman Prizes
This year’s honorees follow in the trailblazing tradition of past Hillman Prize winners, ranging from Murray Kempton in 1950 for his articles on labor in the South; to Edward R. Murrow in 1954 for his critical reports on civil liberties and Joseph McCarthy at the height of the Red Scare; to Julie K. Brown in 2019 for her stories about the sex crimes and sweetheart deals of Jeffrey Epstein; and Ari Berman’s 2022 reporting on voter suppression.
The Hillman Prizes are open to journalists globally for any published reporting that is widely accessible to a U.S. audience. Winners are awarded a $5,000 prize, and a certificate designed by New Yorker cartoonist Edward Sorel.
The Sidney Hillman Foundation also awards the annual Canadian Hillman Prizes. This year, Toronto Star reporterBrendan Kennedy won the print/digital prize for “The Maplehurst Riot Squad,” revealing abuse in a Canadian prison that was so egregious, judges either erased or reduced sentences.
CBC’s the fifth estate won the broadcast prize for “Tax Hack: Identity Theft” and “The Denial Machine,” about government agencies whose systems were hacked, but refused to take responsibility and blamed victims.
Robert Cribb, Wendy-Ann Clarke, Susanne Reber, Laurie Few, and Bruce Edwards won the Small Market/Local reporting prize for “Arachnid: Hunting the Web’s Darkest Secrets,” a chilling six-part podcast disclosing the dark forces on the internet that spread images of child sexual abuse, and a new tech solution that social media platforms refuse to use.
Sidney Hillman, the founder and president of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, and a founder of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), believed that a free press was essential to a fair and equal society. The Sidney Hillman Foundation has sought to carry on his legacy by honoring journalists who illuminate the great issues of our times.
