In 1999, Angelo B. Henderson became the only African-American reporter to win a Pulitzer Prize for the Wall Street Journal.
The following year, he was honored by Columbia University as one of the nation’s best reporters on race and ethnicity in America, the Detroit News reports.
He was beloved by members of the National Association of Black Journalists because the singular leadership skills he demonstrated during his 24 years in print and broadcast.
Henderson passed away early Saturday at his home in Pontiac, Mich., his wife, Felecia D. Henderson, assistant managing editor of features and presentation at the Detroit News, confirmed for the paper.
He was 51, and the cause of death is unknown.
He was the host of “Your Voice With Angelo Henderson,” on WCHB-1200, one of Detroit’s most popular news talk radio shows owned by Radio One Detroit. He was also the founder of Angelo Ink, a writing, speaking and media consulting firm. Additionally, he served as an associate minister at Triumph Church where he also worked as the director of evangelism and outreach.
“A giant tree in the forest of humanity has fallen,” the Rev. Solomon Kinloch, Jr., senior pastor of Triumph Church, said in a statement released by the church. “Metro Detroit’s loss is now Heaven’s gain.”
Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan said in a statement that “few people worked as passionately and tirelessly to improve” Detroit as Henderson.
“Through his radio program, his ministry and his personal community service, everything Angelo did was meant to uplift our city and its people,” Duggan said. “In his time with us, he touched countless lives, including my own. My heart goes out to Angelo's family and to the thousands of fans he considered family.”
He is survived by his wife and their 19-year-old son, Grant. Funeral arrangements are being handled by Swanson Funeral Home. Details are pending.
In the community and to those who loved him, Henderson was “larger than life,” Raphael B. Johnson, who co-founded the Detroit 300 with Henderson as a way of assisting police in getting around the “no-snitch culture” in the city, told the News.
Read more at the Detroit News.