Marcia Chatelain of Georgetown University Is the 2020 Hooks National Book Award Winner

The Benjamin L. Hooks Institute for Social Change at the University of Memphis has named Marcia Chatelain, a professor of history and African American studies at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., as the 2020 Hooks National Book Award Winner. The Hooks Institute presents its National Book Award to a non-fiction book published in the calendar year that best furthers understanding of the American civil rights movement and its legacy.

Dr. Chatelain was honored for her book Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America (Liveright, 2020). She previously won the Pulitzer Prize in history for the same book.

“Since it started in 2010, the annual book award given by the Benjamin L. Hooks Institute for Social Change has attracted outstanding nominations,” said Aram Goudsouzian, Bizot Family Professor of History at the University of Memphis and chair of the Hooks National Book Award Committee. “This year, the overall quality of the five finalists was exceptional. Dr. Chatelain’s Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America stood out to the book award committee for the depth of its research, the quality of the writing, and especially for its astute analysis.”

A native of Chicago, Professor Chatelain also authored South Side Girls: Growing Up in the Great Migration (Duke University Press, 2015). Before joining the faculty at Georgetown, she was a Reach for Excellence Assistant Professor of Honors and African American Studies at the University of Oklahoma.

Dr. Chatelain is a graduate of the University of Missouri, where she majored in religious studies and journalism. She earned a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in American civilization from Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.