Dahleen Glanton

Newspaper reporter and columnist Dahleen Glanton was born on January 3, 1955 in Hogansville, Georgia to Annie Ruth Glanton and Isaac Glanton. She graduated from Hogansville High School in 1972 and then attended the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia, where she received her B.A. degree in journalism in 1976.

Glanton was hired as a staff writer for the Asheville Citizen newspaper in Asheville, North Carolina in 1977. She was then hired in 1978 by the Houston Post newspaper in Houston, Texas. Glanton worked there as a reporter until 1982, when she was hired as a reporter for the news agency United Press International in Dallas, Texas. She held this role until 1985, when the San Diego Union newspaper hired her in the investigative and enterprise unit in San Diego, California. In 1987, Glanton moved to the Los Angeles Times. She then accepted a position in 1989 as a reporter at the Chicago Tribune, where she worked over the decades as an associate metropolitan editor, national correspondent, the Atlanta bureau chief, and a columnist. During her tenure as a reporter, Glanton’s coverage included Hurricane Katrina, President Barack Obama’s 2008 election, the debate over national gun control laws, and military families impacted by the Iraq War. As a columnist, her focus was on politics, race, poverty, and violence. Glanton remained with the Chicago Tribune until 2021, when she was hired as a communications advisor at Kivvit, a public affairs and communications strategy advisory company, where she specializes in messaging and media strategy across Chicago and Illinois.

Glanton is a member of the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority.

Glanton’s honors and awards include a 1987 Sigma Delta Chi Award from the Society of Professional Journalists, a 2016 Illinois Association of Media Editors Award for column writing, and a 2018 Studs Terkel Award, Peter Lisagor Award for column writing, and the Mike Royko Award for Commentary/Column Writing from the American Society of News Editors. She also was a 2017 Pulitzer Prize finalist for commentary and 2017 National Headliner Award finalist.

Glanton lives in Chicago, Illinois.

Dahleen Glanton was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on August 16, 2022.