Haynes Johnson

Haynes Johnson
Johnson circa 2006
Born	(1931-07-09)July 9, 1931 New York City, New York, U.S.
Died	May 24, 2013(2013-05-24) (aged 81) Bethesda, Maryland, U.S.
Nationality	American
Known for	Pulitzer Prize
Spouse(s)	Julia Erwin; Kathryn A. Oberly

Haynes Bonner Johnson (July 9, 1931 – May 24, 2013) was an American Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist, best-selling author, and TV analyst. He reported on most of the major news stories of the latter half of the 20th century and was widely regarded as one of the top American political commentators.

Johnson was born in New York City to journalist Malcolm Johnson and Emma Ludie (née Adams), a pianist. He earned his bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Missouri in 1952 and his master's in American history from the University of Wisconsin in 1956. He then served in the U.S. Army as a first lieutenant in artillery during the Korean War.

Johnson had begun his newspaper career earlier in Manhattan as a copy boy for The New York Sun, where his father worked. In 1956 he began reporting for the Wilmington (Delaware) News-Journal, and the following year, Johnson joined the Washington Evening Star where he worked for 12 years, variously as a reporter, copy editor, night city editor and national reporter. He covered conflicts in the Dominican Republic and India, as well as the Vietnam War. Johnson joined The Washington Post in 1969, serving first as a National correspondent, as a special assignment correspondent at home and abroad, then as the paper's Assistant Managing Editor and finally, as a national affairs columnist.

Johnson won a Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting in 1966, for his coverage of the civil rights crisis in Selma, Alabama. The award marked the first time in Pulitzer Prize history that a father and son both received awards for reporting; his father, Malcolm Johnson, won in 1949 for the New York Sun series, "Crime on the Waterfront," which was the basis for the Academy Award-winning film, On the Waterfront.