Inquirer names Harold Jackson editorial page editor

Harold Jackson, The Inquirer's deputy editorial page editor, will become editorial page editor, overseeing the opinion pages, the newspaper announced today.

Jackson, who succeeds Chris Satullo, became deputy editor of the editorial page in 2004, after coordinating the newspaper's zoned daily commentary and Sunday Voices section.

He began his journalism career in his hometown of Birmingham, Ala., where he worked for United Press International and later became an assistant national editor at The Inquirer. Jackson returned to Alabama in 1987 to join the editorial board of the Birmingham News. He and two colleagues at the News won the Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing in 1991 for a series on Alabama's discriminatory tax system.

The National Association of Black Journalists named Jackson Journalist of the Year in 1991. He has been a Freedom Forum journalist in residence at the University of Alabama and a visiting professor of journalism at Loyola College of Maryland.

Jackson rejoined The Inquirer in 1999 after five years as an editorial writer at the Baltimore Sun.

"This is a wonderful and deeply gratifying example of virtue rewarded," Satullo said of Jackson's appointment. "Harold's an excellent journalist, but he's an even better person."

Satullo will be a twice-a-week Inquirer columnist and direct the paper's civic engagement program.