Dash takes time for Pulitizer story

When Leon Dash returned from the West African bureau of The Washington Post in 1984, he heard a statistic that changed his career and his life.

Fifty-three percent of all children born in 1983 were born to unwed African-American adolescents, according to a report cited by Dash.

Armed with that fact, Dash first pursued a 17-month project for the Post about adolescent child-bearing. Originally published in January of 1986, Dash expanded the material and published it as a book called "When Children Want Children" in 1989.

That project deepened Dash's commitment to reporting on urban poverty -- and led him to Rosa Lee Cunningham and the Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Journalism.

"I have been working on the same story essentially since 1984," Dash told Ohio journalists in April at a regional conference of the Society of Professional Journalists in Columbus.

Dash first met Rosa Lee Cunningham in 1990, while interviewing 40 different repeat offenders housed in the Washington, D.C., jail system. Seeking to understand how families remained trapped in the urban underclass, Dash initially focused his reporting on four of the offenders and their extended families. Overwhelmed by that task, he soon narrowed his attention to Rosa Lee, her eight children and five of her grandchildren.

Rosa Lee was the oldest daughter of 22 children of a North Carolina sharecropping family. They resettled in Washington, D.C., before Rosa Lee was born. At age 13, Rosa Lee dropped out of the school with her first pregnancy. By 16, she had been married, left her husband and returned to her mother's home. In the years ahead, Rosa Lee would bear seven more children (with six different men), and become a chronic shoplifter, heroin addict, prostitute and repeated jailhouse resident. But she would also become fiercely protective of her children and grandchildren, doling out money and refuge repeatedly after six of her eight children followed her into drug use.

Dash's reporting follows Rosa Lee to her death, following complications from AIDS, in July of 1995.

The seven-part series about Rosa Lee was published in September of 1994. Dash was awarded the Pulitzer on April 18, 1995, the day Rosa Lee's favorite grandson died following a gang-related shooting and the day Rosa Lee herself entered the hospital for the final time.

Dash gathered intimate, detailed information about Rosa Lee and her family's lives during four years of intensive reporting. He interviewed each family member for hours and hours, having developed a four-tier system of interviewing that required between eight and 17 hours for just the first interview. He accepted early on that he would not uncover truthful, relevant answers until four to six months after first interviewing his subjects.

Dash resisted the family's efforts to have him solve their problems. From the offset, he agreed that he would drive his interview subjects where they wanted to go and buy them food -- but never get directly involved in their many fracases or give them money.

Thus, he most often interviews Rosa Lee at her favorite McDonald's, after driving her to a clinic where she retrieves the methadone she needs to fight her craving for heroin. And he becomes her translator, reading her mail from various city bureaucracies because she is illiterate.

Only after the Washington Post published his series did Dash drop his reporter/subject restrictions. He began talking to Rosa Lee on the phone several times a week, meeting her for meals at McDonald's and giving her advice whenever she asked. "We've become genuine friends, which is a rare occurrence for reporters who cover the lives of poor people," Dash wrote in his book about Rosa Lee.

Dash has continued to examine the lives of the urban underclass. He is currently working on a project about young black male killers.

His employer may change sometime soon, however. As he signed and sold his book at the Columbus convention, he told journalists his newest editor recently ruled against his request to use his extensive interviewing methods for his next project.

Dash is now talking to other publications, as well as universities and institutions, about continuing his work under their auspices.

Religion Coverage

"Alternative religions and spirituality are hot," said Cecile S. Holmes, president of the Religion Newswriters Association (RNA). "People are searching for reasons for why they are here. "

In addition, the Heaven's Gate suicides, the stand off Waco, the American hostage crisis in Iran, the strife in Bosnia and many other national and international stories of prominence have convinced newspapers of the importance of religion in their readers' lives.

"A world without religion coverage is a world where a lot of meaning is missing," said Holmes, religion editor for the Houston Chronicle.

Growth in religion coverage is reflected by growth in the RNA, Holmes said. In the past year, the group added 81 members to bring membership to 213. More and more papers are adding religion writers. (One of the newest, Stephen Huba of the Cincinnati Post, also spoke at the convention.) And religion writers now have five national contests in which to enter their work.

Top journalists from around Ohio are expected in Cleveland Saturday, Sept.. 20, as the Cleveland SPJ Chapter hosts the luncheon for the first ever Ohio SPJ Awards.

The luncheon will be held at noon at the Terrace Club, Jacobs Field. A guest speaker will be announced. Invitations and more details will be mailed.

The awards competition is co-sponsored by SPJ chapters in Cleveland and Cincinnati, in cooperation with chapters in Toledo, Akron and Columbus.

The Cincinnati Chapter in Cincinnati produced and mailed out brochures announcing the contest. Judging was by the SPJ Chapter in Denver.

The competition honors journalists who best served the public interest in 1996.

While there are many contests that recognize good writing, we wanted to sponsor a contest to salute hose who spoke to the heart of SPJ's mission -- First Amendment defense, literacy, opposing censorship, advocacy of open records and open meetings, media self-criticism, and service to those less fortunate.

Awards are in two circulation categories -- less than 100,000 and more than 100,000. Winning entries will be incorporated into a slide show that will tour libraries and newsrooms across Ohio.

A program magazine for the luncheon is being developed. If you are interested in placing an ad in the program, send a message to jemasek@aol.com.

The award categories are listed below. To enter a "best" category, journalists had to submit six work samples.

Student Awards: Best Student Journalist in Ohio, Best Student Newspaper

Best of Show: Best Reporter in Ohio, Best Graphic Designer in Ohio, Best Photographer in Ohio, Best Columnist in Ohio, Best Daily Newspaper, Best Monthly, Best Weekly, Best Special Section.

Other Categories: Defense of the First Amendment, Defense of Literacy, Coverage of Children's Issues, Coverage of the Environment, Consumer Reporting, Coverage of Minority Issues, Criminal Justice Reporting, Editorial Page Campaign. Education Coverage, Media Criticism, Public Journalism Olympics Coverage, Human Interest Writing, Investigative Reporting, Statehouse Coverage, Coverage of Local Government, Web Site, Database Reporting, Use of a Poll, Use of a Public Record.