Background
Pitts, Leonard Garvey was born on October 11, 1957 in Orange, California, United States. Son of Leonard Garvey and Agnes (Rowan) Pitts.
Pitts, Leonard Garvey was born on October 11, 1957 in Orange, California, United States. Son of Leonard Garvey and Agnes (Rowan) Pitts.
Bachelor English, University of Southern California, 1977.
Raised in Los Angeles and educated at the University of Southern California, Pitts currently lives in Bowie, Maryland. Pitts is a bestselling author His first book, Becoming Dad: Black Men and the Journey to Fatherhood, was published in 2006.
Pitts’s third book, Forward from This Moment: Selected Columns, 1994-2008, was published in August 2009.
lieutenant is a selection of his columns from the Miami Herald. Pitts gained national recognition for his widely circulated column of September 12, 2001, "We"ll go forward from this moment" in which he described the toughness of the American spirit in the face of the September 11 attacks.
In June 2007, Pitts was the subject of a campaign of death threats and harassment by neo-Nazis, including Bill White, who were angry at a column he wrote about a white couple who were raped and murdered by five black assailants in Knoxville, Tennessee. In his column addressing the murders, Pitts wrote:
"I am unkindly disposed toward the crackpots, incendiaries and flat-out racists who have chosen this tragedy upon which to take an obscene and ludicrous stand.
I have four words for them and any other white Americans who feel themselves similarly victimized.
Cry me a river."
More death threats were made in April 2008 before his appearance at the University of Puget Sound.
He was originally hired by the Miami Herald to critique music, but within a few years he received his own column in which he dealt extensively with race, politics, and culture. His first novel, Before I Forget, was released in March 2009, and earned a starred review from Publishers Weekly.
Member Florida Society Newspaper Editors (award arts criticism), National Headliners, American Association Sunday and Feature Editors (award arts criticism 1991), National Association of Black Journalists (Award of Execllence in commentary 1994, 95).
Married Marilyn Vernice Pickens, June 27, 1981. Children: Markise Pickens, Monique Pickens. (stepchildren) Marlon, Leonard, Onjél.