TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Hank Klibanoff, a managing editor for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and co-author of “The Race Beat,” will receive the 2008 Clarence Cason Award in Nonfiction Writing from The University of Alabama College of Communication and Information Sciences Thursday, March 6 at a dinner in his honor at the Bryant Conference Center Rast Room.

Klibanoff has had a long and distinguished career in journalism. The Florence native earned his bachelor’s degree at Washington University in St. Louis and his master’s degree in journalism at Northwestern University. He has been a reporter for the Florence Times-Daily, the Biloxi Sun-Herald, the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Boston Globe. He joined the Atlanta Journal-Constitution as a managing editor in 2002.

“The Race Beat: The Press, the Civil Rights Struggle, and the Awakening of a Nation,” which Klibanoff wrote with Gene Roberts, former editor of the Philadelphia Inquirer and former managing editor of The New York Times, looks at news coverage of the civil rights movement in the South -- the black press, Northern press, Southern liberal and segregationist press, television and photojournalism from the 1930s through the late 1960s.

The journalism department in the College of Communication and Information Sciences at UA established the Cason Award in 1997 to honor exemplary non-fiction over a long career. All of the recipients have had strong connections to the state of Alabama.

Tickets for the dinner honoring Klibanoff are $50. The event will begin with a 6 p.m. reception. Klibanoff will accept the award and speak at the dinner. To order tickets, phone Sheila Davis at 205/348-4787.

The University of Alabama, a student-centered research university, is in the midst of a planned, steady enrollment growth with a goal of reaching 28,000 students by 2010. This growth, which is positively impacting the campus and the state’s economy, is in keeping with UA’s vision to be the university of choice for the best and brightest students. UA, the state’s flagship university, is an academic community united in its commitment to enhancing the quality of life for all Alabamians.