Anna E. Lindner, Michael Fuhlhage, D. T. Frazier, and Keena S. Neal are the winners of the 2024 Tom Reilly Award. Their article, “’If Ever Saints Wept and Hell Rejoiced, It Must Have Been Over the Passage of That Law’: The 1850 Fugitive Slave Act in Detroit River Borderland Newspapers, 1851-1852” was the most popular research study on the Journalism History website in 2023.

While conducting this research, all four scholars were associated with Wayne State University’s Department of Communication and what is affectionately called “Fuhlhage’s Research Gang.” Dr. Fuhlhage is an associate professor and he has successfully collaborated with his students on several research projects. Lindner, Frazier, and Neal were doctoral candidates at the time. 

“I’m excited to see the interest in representations of African-descended people that were published in newspapers almost 200 years ago—there are clear parallels with present-day representations,” said Anna Lindner. “Further, this award is evidence that a team of researchers with different areas of expertise who draw theories, methods, and approaches from across disciplines can produce coherent and compelling scholarship.”

Michael Fuhlhage explained how the Research Gang worked together. He said, “it’s a great honor for the Research Gang to receive this award. We conceived this study of newspapers in the Detroit Borderland Frontier the fall before the pandemic, when we were still able to get into the Burton Historical Collection and create digital images of the Voice of the Fugitive and Michigan Christian Voice. That made it possible to share them remotely when access otherwise would have been impossible. This team picked each other up and carried each other—they certainly did that for me—during the early months of the pandemic, and I am so grateful to my students. We benefited from a synergy of research methods and ways of thinking blended from the different communication disciplines of each team member. That it added up to something that resonated strongly with a broad audience says a lot about the ongoing relevance of the questions about race, freedom, conscience, allyship, and resistance that our work explores.”

The winning article examined the rhetoric used by newspapers in the Detroit River Borderland (Michigan to Canada West) to either promote or resist the Fugitive Slave Act. The passage of the act in 1850 made resistance to slave catchers a federal crime. It was developed as a compromise before the U.S. was divided by the Civil War.

The Tom Reilly Award recognizes excellence in journalism history research and is the journal’s “People’s Choice Award.” The journal’s Publications Committee created the award to honor Reilly, a former California State University, Northridge, professor who served as the journal’s founding editor from 1974-1985.

“The authors are well-deserving of this award,” said Journalism History Editor Pam Parry. “I’m not surprised our readers embraced this article as it was one of the most compelling we published in 2023. It focuses on an important topic, utilizes credible sources, and engages us with a strong narrative. These scholars and this article embody the mission of Journalism History—to advance the discipline and knowledge of our field.”

Journalism History is the official academic journal of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication’s History Division. The History Division will recognize Lindner, Fuhlhage, Frazier, and Neal with the Tom Reilly Award during its Awards Gala at the 2024 AEJMC conference in August.

Journalism History is the oldest peer-reviewed journal of mass media history in the United States. It is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.