Pulitzer Prize winner Brett Blackledge, a reporter for Birmingham (Ala.) News who exposed corruption and cronyism in Alabama's community college system, will speak at 7 p.m., Thursday, May 3, in the Visual Arts & Technologies Center, Room 120 (950 Lewis Street). 

       

This will be the 30th Annual Edith Fox King Journalism Lecture, sponsored by the San Antonio College Department of Journalism-Photography and the campus chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists.  The event is free and open to the public, and seating is limited.  
      

Blackledge won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting for ongoing coverage that led to the firing of the chancellor, removal of relatives from the payroll, and investigations of two college presidents.  In addition, the community college system dispatched investigative teams to its 26 colleges, and a federal probe has led so far to indictments, guilty pleas, three convictions, and the resignations or firing of several legislators.  Consequently, the governor has introduced legislation banning employment of legislators in community colleges.   
     

Blackledge is a native of Baton Rouge, La. and graduated from Louisiana State University with a degree in journalism.  He has worked for the Associated Press, Journal Newspapers, the Mobile Register, and Education Daily covering the White House, U.S. Congress and U.S. Department of Education.  He has been a general assignments and special projects reporter at the Birmingham News since 1998.
      

The annual Edith Fox King Lecture honors King, who taught journalism at San Antonio College from 1958-1969.  For more information, contact Marianne Odom at 733-2870.