Eugene Robinson

Eugene Robinson is a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist and associate editor of The Washington Post and a commentator for MSNBC. His twice-weekly column on The Post’s Op-Ed page was launched in February 2005, and within a year it was being syndicated to more than 130 newspapers – making it, by far, the fastest-growing column in the history of the Washington Post Writers Group.

Robinson has been an MSNBC commentator since January 2008, appearing several times a week on shows including “Hardball,” “Countdown with Keith Olbermann” and “The Race for the White House,” as a contributor to the network’s coverage of the presidential campaign and President Barack Obama’s first term. He won the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for columns he wrote about the presidential campaign and the election of President Obama.

A 29-year veteran of The Post, Robinson began his distinguished journalism career at the San Francisco Chronicle, and after joining The Washington Post in 1980 as city hall reporter, he served as an assistant city editor, South America correspondent based in Argentina, London bureau chief, and as foreign editor. He is a frequent guest on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” CNN and other media outlets. His essays on politics, culture and events have helped shape the debate on issues such as the war in Iraq, the limits of presidential power and the rebuilding of the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast. Robinson was also a Neiman Fellow in Journalism at Harvard University.

Robinson was born and raised in Orangeburg, S.C, graduated from Orangeburg High School, as one of a handful of black students on the previously all-white campus; and the University of Michigan, where he was the first black student to be named co-editor-in-chief of the award-winning student newspaper, The Michigan Daily.

Robinson is a member of the National Association of Black Journalists and has received numerous journalism awards. He is the author of two books: Coal to Cream: A Black Man’s Journey Beyond Color to an Affirmation of Race (Free Press, 1999); and Last Dance in Havana (Free Press, 2004). Robinson is married, has two sons, and lives in Arlington, Virginia.