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Haynes Johnson | Prize-winning reporter, 81

Haynes Johnson, 81, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter who migrated from newspapers to television, books, and teaching, died Friday. In a statement to the Washington Post newsroom, managing editor Kevin Merida said Mr. Johnson died of a heart attack.

Haynes Johnson, 81, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter who migrated from newspapers to television, books, and teaching, died Friday. In a statement to the Washington Post newsroom, managing editor Kevin Merida said Mr. Johnson died of a heart attack.

Mr. Johnson was awarded a Pulitzer in 1966 for reporting on the civil rights struggle in Selma, Ala., while with the Washington Star. He spent about 12 years at the Star before joining the Washington Post in 1969. He was a columnist for the Post from 1977 to 1994.

The author, coauthor, or editor of 18 books, Mr. Johnson also appeared regularly on the PBS programs Washington Week in Review and The NewsHour. He was a member of the NewsHour historians panel from 1994 to 2004, and had taught at the University of Maryland since 1998.

Mr. Johnson was born in New York City. His mother, Emmie, was a pianist, and his father, Malcolm Johnson, a newspaperman. The elder Johnson won a Pulitzer Prize for the New York Sun in 1949 for his reporting on the city's dockyards, and his series suggested the story told in the Oscar-winning film On the Waterfront.

Mr. Johnson resisted working in New York journalism to avoid being compared to his father. He worked nearly a year in Wilmington at the News-Journal before joining the Star as a reporter.

His books include The Battle for America 2008: The Story of an Extraordinary Election, (2009) with Dan Balz; The Best of Times: America in the Clinton Years (2001); and The System: The American Way of Politics at the Breaking Point (1996) with David S. Broder.

- AP