Pulitzer Prize-winning photographs often capture moments of national or global importance — they are images that on their own tell a compelling narrative and stir emotions. Here are the stories of six famous photographs that have been awarded a Pulitzer Prize.
Nat Fein’s – Babe Ruth Bows Out
One of the most iconic baseball history photos and moments. Babe Ruth’s home run records and larger-than-life personality made him baseball’s first true superstar and one of its most enduring icons. On June 13, 1948, Yankee Stadium hosted a celebration to not only mark the ballpark’s 25th anniversary but also retire the Great Bambino’s iconic No. 3 jersey.
Moneta Sleet Jr.’s – Coretta Scott King
Photographer Moneta Sleet Jr. had a close relationship with Martin Luther King Jr. and his family. Sleet spent years covering the Civil Rights Movement at Ebony magazine, including the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott, the 1963 March on Washington, and the pivotal 1965 events in Selma, Alabama. He also captured the day that King was laid to rest. On April 9, 1968, at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia, Sleet snapped a strikingly sorrowful photo of King’s widow, Coretta Scott King, and their youngest daughter, Bernice, just days after King was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee.
Slava Veder’s – Burst of Joy. The end of the Vietnam War
After the Paris Peace Accord was signed in early 1973, ending the United States’ war in Vietnam, American prisoners of war began to return home. On one such momentous occasion, Slava Veder of the Associated Press was on the tarmac at Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield, California. On March 17, when Lieutenant Colonel Robert Stirm returned home after being imprisoned in North Vietnam for almost six years, his 15-year-old daughter charged toward him, arms outstretched and face ecstatic; Stirm’s other children and wife followed closely behind her. The image, however joyful, was bittersweet.
Rocco Morabito’s – Kiss of Life. Florida lineman life saving event
Sometimes capturing a moment is a matter of chance. In July 1967, Jacksonville Journal photographer Rocco Morabito was on his way to cover a train strike in Jacksonville, Florida, when an unrelated sight caught his photographic eye: electrical linemen, working up high on utility poles, their silhouettes against the sky. Not wanting to miss his deadline, he continued on to his assignment, only to loop back to the linemen for some pictures when he was done. But as he approached, he noticed a commotion. Utility lineman Randall Champion had electrocuted himself and was dangling upside down from the power pole. As Champion’s co-worker J.D. Thompson sprang into action, climbing the pole and immediately beginning mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.
Scott Shaw’s – The Rescue of Jessica McClure. The rescue watched by all of America
On October 16, 1987, after a harrowing 58-hour rescue mission, 18-month-old Jessica McClure was successfully rescued from an abandoned water well in Midland, Texas. The toddler, known affectionately as “Baby Jessica” by the millions who anxiously watched the ordeal unfold on live television, had fallen 22 feet deep into an 8-inch-wide opening while playing in her aunt’s backyard. Local emergency workers, drilling experts, and volunteers labored around the clock; when Jessica finally emerged, bruised and dirty but awake, America breathed a collective sigh of relief.
