For its comprehensive coverage of immigration issues, The Topeka Capital-Journal has been named the winner of the 2006 Burton W. Marvin News Enterprise award.

The Capital-Journal helped its readers examine immigration through many sets of eyes – legal as well as illegal – and it told the stories of successes as well as failures, the judges said.

Given since 1974 by the William Allen White Foundation, the Burton Marvin award recognizes outstanding reporting by newspapers in Kansas. The award is named in honor of the foundation’s first director and a former dean of the KU School of Journalism. The award was presented Feb. 9 during William Allen White Day activities at the University of Kansas.

“We are proud of the rich history of journalistic excellence in Kansas,” said Ann Brill, Dean of the School of Journalism. “It is an honor for the School to be associated with this prestigious award. We congratulate The Topeka Capital-Journal.”

How better to begin than a 47-hour, one-way bus trip into the heart of Mexico. Reporter Tim Carpenter and photographer Thad Allton were joined by Allton’s son, Cooper Allton, who spoke Spanish. At a small Presbyterian church, they learned that as many as half of the congregation were supported by relatives living and working illegally in the United States. Jobs in the U.S. paid much more than workers could earn in Mexico.

The reporter-photographer team also interviewed legal immigrants as they obtained their prized citizenship in the United States. It examined the Oakland neighborhood of Topeka, long a haven for new immigrants. It included employers who hire immigrant labor, authorities who try to keep up with the flow of illegal workers, and Kansans who want to put a stop to it.

The series of stories ran in the final four months of 2006. It was repackaged in a 20-page broadsheet special section, which was made available to Kansas legislators and others.

Other staff members at The Topeka Capital-Journal who should be acknowledged in the award-winning series are Wayne Stewart, managing editor, Jan Biles, reporter, and Barbara Hollingsworth, education reporter.

Also, the judges commended compelling coverage of Western Kansas and Salina water issues by The Salina Journal. The Journal, and reporter Duane Schrag, explained to Journal readers that last summer’s water emergency was directly caused by farming practices, not drought, as claimed by state water officials.

The School of Journalism observes William Allen White Day annually in February to coincide with White’s birthday. This year the White Foundation trustees chose Richard C. Clarkson, a 1956 KU School of Journalism graduate and a nationally known photojournalist, to receive the citation, presented annually since 1950 to journalists who exemplify the ideals of William Allen White. KU's William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications is named in White's honor. White (1868-1944) was a nationally influential Kansas editor and publisher. He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1923.

For more information, contact Jennifer Kinnard, Communications Coordinator for the University of Kansas William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications, at (785) 864-7644 or jkinnard@ku.edu.