By Fred L. Jones, Jr.
Eagle Staff Writer
Eli Saslow is the new face of millennial America. He is not stuck on traditional beliefs of discord or disillusion. Saslow is educated, open-minded and not subject to America’s prejudices of its ugly past.
Saslow was selected as the 2018 John Hope Franklin Dinner of Reconciliation keynote speaker. Saslow recently published a book titled “Rising Out of Hatred” in 2018. The Washington Post stated, “This is a disturbing look at the spread of that extremism — and how it is planted and cultivated in the fertile soil of American bigotry. And yet, Saslow’s vivid storytelling also conveys that during this period of deepening racial division, there is the possibility of redemption.”
Saslow is a staff writer for the Washington Post and a contributor to ESPN the Magazine. Among his numerous awards he has won a 2014 Pulitzer Prize for explanatory reporting, a 2014 George Polk Award for national reporting and has been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in feature writing. His works include: “Ten Letters: The Stories Americans Tell Their President” in 2012 and “American Hunger: The Pulitzer Prize-Winning Washington Post Series” in 2014. He lives in Takoma Park, Md., with his wife and two daughters.
When asked about the reception he had received upon arriving in Tulsa he stated, “The reception has been great, specifically for this dinner in terms of bringing people together for a community dialog is kind of a sad story for our culture that this is a unique and revelatory thing to do, but there just aren’t that many time that this happens, especially in Tulsa, a place which has a negative history and problem with dealing with its negative history and diversity issues.”
