Carol Sutton (journalist)

Carol Sutton (June 29, 1933^[1] – February 19, 1985^[2]) was an American journalist. She got her journalism degree from the University of Missouri.^[3] In 1974 she became the first female managing editor of a major U.S. daily newspaper,^[4] The Courier-Journal in Louisville, Kentucky. She was cited as the example of female achievement in journalism when Time named American Women as the 1975 People of the Year.^[4] During her tenure at the paper, it was awarded the 1971 Penney-Missouri Award for General Excellence^[5] and in 1976 the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography for its coverage of school desegregation in Louisville.^[6] She is also credited with significantly raising the number of minority reporters on staff.^[7][3]

Sutton knew of her Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame award at the University of Kentucky before her death in 1985. The family holds a Carol Sutton Memorial Scholarship Award in her honor every year, which has grown from one recipient to eight or twelve.^[8] She was the first white woman to be inducted into the National Association of Black Journalists Hall of Fame.^[3]