Pulitzer Prize-Winning Black Playwrights

Yesterday, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins won a Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play Purpose. That's a major accomplishment. What I hadn't considered until taking a closer look was this: over the last six years, five Black playwrights have received the Pulitzer for Drama: Jackie Sibblies Drury (Fairview, 2019), Michael R. Jackson (A Strange Loop, 2020), Katori Hall (The Hot Wing King, 2021), James Ijames (Fat Ham, 2022), Eboni Booth (Primary Trust, 2024), and now Jacobs-Jenkins (Purpose, 2025). 

Earlier African American recipients of the prize include Charles Gordone (No Place to Be Somebody, 1970), Charles Fuller (A Soldier’s Play, 1982), August Wilson (Fences, 1987; The Piano Lesson, 1990), Suzan-Lori Parks (Topdog/Underdog, 2002), and Lynn Nottage (Ruined, 2009; Sweat, 2017).