About Me
An Alabama native, I've spent the last 20 years covering political culture in my home state and the South. As a columnist for AL.com, I write about character, corruption, cruelty and hypocrisy while also searching for those righteous folks who stubbornly stick to their principles and make their state and country better places for all.
Before joining AL.com, I spent 10 years writing for alt-weeklies in Birmingham, including Birmingham Weekly and Weld, the latter of which I co-founded. I've also contributed to the New York Times, CNN.com and the Washinton Post. In my time here, I've covered the HealthSouth accounting fraud, the Jefferson County bankruptcy, and the foibles of numerous Alabama politicians, including Birmingham Mayor Larry Langford, Gov. Robert Bentley and Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore.
After joining AL.com in 2012, I first worked as a government and politics reporter before taking the position of columnist in 2014. Since then, I have been honored with multiple awards and recognitions for my work, including the 2023 Pulitzer Prize.
National Awards
2023 Pulitzer Prize, commentary
"For measured and persuasive columns that document how Alabama's Confederate heritage still colors the present with racism and exclusion, told through tours of its first capital, its mansions and monuments–and through the history that has been omitted."
See the winning work here: "State of Denial"
2023 NLA Mike Royko Award, commentary
From the judges: "Whitmire’s engaging approach of serving as a reader’s tour guide pulls a reader through Alabama’s dark, racist history that still pokes through civic life. He doesn’t use in-your-face prose. Instead, he brings readers along while writing about how white lawmakers in 1901 subverted the rights of Black citizens. His compelling writing makes plain that this is not merely Alabama’s history; it is also its present, as political forces try to erase or whitewash what truly happened – and what is still tolerated."
2021 MOLLY Award, political commentary
2021 National Headliner Awards, Second Place, local column writing.
2020 Sigma Delta Chi Award, general column writing, daily circulation 1-100,000.
2019 Scripps Howard Awards, Walker Stone Award for opinion writing.
Judges' comments: "His columns – a mix of good storytelling and fearless opinion – prick the soft underbelly of the Jim Crow, Jr. South. Whitmire is the linear successor of Eugene Patterson and Ida B. Wells, a fact that bodes well for Alabama and the journalism profession."
2019 Phillip D. Reed Environmental Writing Award (with John Archibald).
The case led to the conviction of a Drummond Company vice president and a member of one of Alabama’s most prominent law firms, Balch & Bingham, on charges related to bribing the state legislator. The reporters point out, however, that the tentacles of the conspiracy extend to many other corporate executives, high-level government officials and community leaders, and that the trial laid bare a “shadow government” in Alabama “run by the elites at the expense of the powerless.”
2018 INMA, Best Use of Video (Team).
2015 IRE, Investigations Triggered by Breaking News, finalist (Team).
Regional Awards
2023 Green Eyeshade Awards, Second Place, Serious Commentary/All Dailies.
2022 Green Eyeshade Awards, First Place, Political Reporting/All Dailies.
2022 Green Eyeshade Awards, Second Place, Serious Commentary/All Dailies.
2021 Green Eyeshade Awards, Second Place, Serious Commentary/All Dailies.
2020 Green Eyeshade Awards, First Place, Serious Commentary/All Dailies.
2019 Green Eyeshade Awards, Second Place, Serious Commentary/All Dailies.
2018 Green Eyeshade Awards, First Place, Serious Commentary/All Dailies.
2018 Southeast Regional Emmy, Best Public/Current/Community Affairs.