In 1994 , while Chicago bureau chief of '' The New York Times '' , she became the first woman of African-American heritage to win the Pulitzer Prize in journalism , winning the feature writing award for her coverage of the 1993 midwestern floods and her profile of a 10-year-old boy who was responsible for his four siblings . Several of Wilkerson 's articles are included in the book '' Pulitzer Prize Feature Stories : America 's Best Writing , 1979 - 2003 '' , edited by David Garlock
1993 midwestern floods
Great Flood of 1993
Isabel Wilkerson