Wilkerson interviewed more than a thousand people forThe Warmth of Other Suns (2010), which documents the stories of African Americans whomigrated to northern and western cities during the 20th century. Her 2020 bookCaste describes theracial hierarchy in the United States as acaste system. Both books were best-sellers.
In 1994, while the Chicago Bureau Chief ofThe New York Times, she became the first woman ofAfrican-American heritage to win thePulitzer Prize in journalism,[1] winning thefeature writing award for her coverage of the1993 midwestern floods and her profile of a 10-year-old boy who was responsible for his four siblings.[4] Several of Wilkerson's articles are included in the bookPulitzer Prize Feature Stories: America's Best Writing, 1979 – 2003, edited by David Garlock.
In a 2010New York Times interview, Wilkerson described herself as being part of a movement of African Americans who have chosen to return to the South after generations in the North.[15]
In 2016, Wilkerson was awarded a National Humanities Medal by President Barack Obama for "championing an unsung history."[16]
Wilkerson's 2020 bookCaste: The Origins of Our Discontents argues that racial stratification in the United States is best understood as acaste system, akin to those in India and in Nazi Germany.[17]A review byDwight Garner inThe New York Times described it as "an instant American classic and almost certainly the keynote nonfiction book of the American century thus far."[17]Publishers Weekly calledCaste a "powerful and extraordinarily timely social history."[18]Caste was included in Oprah's Book Club, where Oprah Winfrey discussed calling the author after the book's release, saying "I was crying because I was so moved by this book."[19] The reviewer forThe Chicago Tribune wrote that the book was "among the year's best" books.[20] The book peaked at number one onThe New York Timesnonfiction best-seller list.[21] In October 2020,Netflix announced thatAva DuVernay would write, direct, and produce a feature film adaptation ofCaste.[22]
In 2009, Wilkerson married her second husband, Brett Kelly Hamilton. Hamilton died in 2015 after being ill for some time.[24] Hamilton suffered from a rare type of brain tumor. After multiple surgeries he suffered from seizures. It is believed that a seizure is what took his life on July 19, 2015.[25]
The New American Reader: Recent Periodical Essays, edited by Gilbert H. Muller (McGraw-Hill, 1997)
"He Put a Spin on Design", inThe Last Word: The New York Times Book of Obituaries and Farewells : a Celebration of Unusual Lives, edited by Marvin Siegel (William Morrow, 1997)
"Superstars of Dreamland", inBest American Movie Writing, edited by George Plimpton (St. Martin's Press, 1998)
We Americans: Celebrating a Nation, Its People and Its Past, edited by Thomas B. Allen and Charles O. Hyman (National Geographic Society, 1999)
"Two Boys, a Debt, a Gun, a Victim: The Face of Violence", inWriting the World: Reading and Writing about Issues of the Day, edited by Charles R. Cooper, Susan Peck MacDonald (Macmillan, 2000).ISBN0-312-26008-3
Written into History: Pulitzer Prize Reporting of the Twentieth Century, edited by Anthony Lewis (Times Books, Henry Holt and Company, 2001)
"First Born, Fast Grown: The Manful Life of Nicholas, 10", inFeature Writing for Newspapers and Magazines: The Pursuit of Excellence, edited by Edward Jay Friedlander and John Lee (HarperCollins College Publishers, 1997); andThe Princeton Anthology of Writing, edited by John McPhee and Carol Rigolot (Princeton University Press, 2001)
Various articles,Pulitzer Prize Feature Stories: America's Best Writing, 1979 – 2003, edited by David Garlock (Iowa State University Press, 1998; Wiley-Blackwell; 2nd edition, April 18, 2003)
"Interviewing Sources", Spring 2002 Nieman Narrative Journalism Conference Report
"Angela Whitiker's Climb", inClass Matters, by correspondents ofThe New York Times (Times Books, 2005)
"Interviewing: Accelerated Intimacy", inTelling True Stories: A Nonfiction Writers' Guide from the Nieman Foundation at Harvard University, edited by Mark Kramer and Wendy Call (Plume Penguin Books, January 30, 2007)
In 2023,Ava DuVernay filmedOrigin, a biographical drama about Wilkerson and the writing of her bookCaste.Aunjanue Ellis played the leading role, who described Isabel as a "journalistic, literary Indiana Jones".[45] The film is based on Isabel Wilkerson's personal experience with loss and an investigation of racial history in the United States.[46]
Wilkerson's bookCaste: The Origins of Our Discontents was included in book ban efforts in Texas libraries in 2023. In an interview withOprah Daily, Wilkerson states that the book ban "brings more attention to the necessity of reading and knowing our history,"[47]
^Wilkerson, Isabel (July 1, 2020)."America's Enduring Caste System".NYT Magazine. RetrievedJuly 15, 2020.As we go about our daily lives, caste is the wordless usher in a darkened theater, flashlight cast down in the aisles, guiding us to our assigned seats for a performance. The hierarchy of caste is not about feelings or morality. It is about power — which groups have it and which do not.
^"Isabel Wilkerson of The New York Times". pulitzer.org. 1994. RetrievedJuly 15, 2020.For her profile of a fourth-grader from Chicago's South Side and for two stories reporting on the Midwestern flood of 1993.
Q&A interview with Isabel Wilkerson onThe Warmth of Other Suns, September 26, 2010,C-SPAN
