Now more than ever, rigorous, ethical and technically skilled journalists are needed to hold those in power accountable and tell stories that matter. The impact of their work strengthens our democratic society — and demonstrates the value of accountability for governments, non-government organizations and private corporations.
Since 1989, the Ring Foundation has partnered with the USC Annenberg School of Journalism to present the Selden Ring Award for Investigative Reporting. The $50,000 annual award — the largest journalism prize in America — was established with the support of Southern California businessman and philanthropist Selden Ring. It highlights the impact investigative journalists have on local, national and global communities.
2019 Selden Ring winner
Emmanuel Martinez and Aaron Glantz of the Center for Investigative Reporting’s Reveal have won the 2019 Selden Ring Award for Investigative Reporting for their multi-part series “Kept Out,” which uncovered widespread discrimination in home lending throughout the United States.
Fifty years after the Fair Housing Act banned discrimination in mortgage lending, known as redlining, reporters Martinez and Glantz embarked on year-long analysis using both a trove of statistical research and dogged reporting to produce what the Selden Ring judges called “an unassailable indictment of discriminatory lending practices that exist to this day.”
“Martinez and Glantz knew that the home ownership gap between blacks and whites had grown wider than it was during the Jim Crow era,” the judges wrote. “They set out to learn why. Using an unprecedented analysis of 31 million mortgage records, they found that modern-day redlining persisted in 61 metro areas, even when people of color made the same amount of money, took on the same size loan and sought to live in the same neighborhood as their white counterparts.”
