ProPublica reporter Nikole Hannah-Jones and This American Life's Nancy Updike have won the Sidney Award for their collaborative project, House Rules, which traced the history of the Fair Housing Act and how the landmark legislation intended to reverse decades of government-fostered segregation hasn't accomplished much in its 45-year history.
The TAL episode – based heavily on Hannah-Jones' investigative series, Living Apart – highlights how landlords can have drastically different responses to potential tenants depending on their race – demonstrating how housing discrimination still persists today.
"House Rules tells the little-known history of one of the most important pieces of civil rights legislation in U.S. history," Sidney judge Lindsay Beyerstein said. "The program exposes a legacy of official housing discrimination and documents the ongoing efforts to reverse it."
Congrats to Nikole and our partners at TAL. You can read more about the Sidney award and how this collaboration came together here.