KU student reporter wins two national awards for story on local homeless man

LAWRENCE -- For his story on a local homeless man, a University of Kansas journalism student from Emporia has won both a $1,000 national Robert F. Kennedy journalism award and $600 for placing fifth in the William Randolph Hearst Personality Profile competition.

Adam Pracht, Emporia junior, will receive the Robert F. Kennedy award May 6 in ceremonies at the Freedom Forum in Arlington, Va. The Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Awards honor outstanding reporting of problems of the disadvantaged for professional, college and high school journalists. Past winners include Diane Sawyer of ABC, The Chicago Tribune, The Washington Post, National Public Radio and CBS' "60 Minutes."

Ethel Kennedy, founder of the memorial for her late husband, notified Pracht personally that he had won the college division of the prestigious journalism award.

Pracht's story, published May 1, 2002, in the University Daily Kansan, KU's student newspaper, profiled Robert Gilmore, a college-educated homeless man who slept outside a KU building.

Although Gilmore lived in plain sight of many KU students, he was guarded about being interviewed, Pracht wrote. Previous reporters' attempts to write the story had failed. "The assignment seemed overwhelming at first, especially considering all of the others who had tried to get the story before and had not gotten anything," Pracht remembered.

To learn about Gilmore, Pracht gathered facts through other sources, ranging from the few people in Lawrence who had personal contact with Gilmore, to officers in the KU Public Safety Office and Lawrence Police Department, to an official in the Branson, Mo., school district office who coincidentally had attended high school with Gilmore.

As Pracht was completing the story, he learned Gilmore had been sent to a treatment facility. Gilmore contacted the Kansan and requested the story not be published. "After much ethical debate on whether to run the story, the Kansan decided to do so," said Malcolm Gibson, Kansan general manager. "Gilmore had become a campus presence and though mentally ill, had thrust himself into the public eye. Both the Lawrence and KU community wanted to know what had become of this man.

"Pracht's sensitive approach to the newsworthy story was the key reason for printing the article," Gibson continued. "His sensitivity and thoroughness also led to the two national awards."

Pracht said he pursued the story because he felt homelessness often was ignored. "Robert's story was unique because on campus we don't have much exposure and awareness of the problem," Pracht said. "Robert was a direct day-to-day reminder of the homelessness problem. It was important to tell the story because people misunderstand him. He was the Lawrence clown, the weird dude on the street who wears socks on his hands.

"After the story came out, no one could look at him the same. They realized he has a name, a past, a family and a personal history," he continued. "When you humanize a person, you realize you have things in common with them, and you no longer oppress them."

Pracht also submitted the story as a project for his advanced reporting class taught by Richard "Rick" Musser, Clyde Reed teaching professor in journalism. Noting Pracht's two national awards, Musser said, "This national recognition verifies what we already knew: When you draw kids as bright as Adam to a program, all you need to do is provide a little motivation. They do the rest."

In 2002, Paul Smith, a University of Missouri-Kansas City student enrolled in journalism courses at KU, received an honorable mention in the Robert F. Kennedy journalism awards. Smith's story on the daily impact of the low wage scale of university employees also was published in the Kansan.

Pracht is the son of Dale and Alice Pracht of Emporia and is an Emporia High School graduate. He plans to graduate in May 2004 with degrees in journalism and Spanish and hopes to work as a newspaper reporter or copy editor. He is copy chief for the Kansan.

Known among the press as the "poor people's Pulitzers," the RFK Journalism Awards have recognized stories on such diverse issues as child abuse, juvenile crime, bank redlining and discrimination against people living with AIDS.

The awards were founded in December 1968 by a group of reporters who had covered Robert Kennedy's presidential campaign.