John W. Fountain

Professor, Roosevelt University; Columnist; Author; Journalist

John W. Fountain

A native son of Chicago’s West Side, John W. Fountain is an award-winning columnist, journalist, professor, publisher and author of True Vine: A Young Black Man’s Journey of Faith, Hope and Clarity; and Dear Dad: Reflections on Fatherhood. A tenured full professor of journalism at Roosevelt University, he writes a weekly Sunday column for the Chicago Sun-Times. As a journalist, Fountain has chronicled the story of murder for 30 years, mostly in Chicago. He has been named a 2021-22 Fulbright Scholar to Ghana, and will teach at the University of Ghana at Legon and complete a research project: “Africa Calling: Portraits of Black Americans Drawn to the Motherland”
He was winner in December 2021 of a 1st Place National Association of Black Journalists "Salute To Excellence Award" in newspaper column writing. He and his students' project, "Unforgotten 51," about the unsolved murders of mostly 51 African-American women in Chicago, also won a 1st place NABJ award. In November 2021, Fountain won second place Dorothy Storck Award from the Chicago Journalists Association for his column. In 2016, 2014 and 2011, he received the Peter Lisagor Award for best news column or commentary at a daily newspaper with a circulation of more than 250,000.

Fountain was formerly a national correspondent for The New York Times and a staff writer at the Washington Post and the Chicago Tribune, where he was once that newspaper’s chief crime reporter. Throughout his career, Fountain has received numerous awards for his work.

He was previously a professor of journalism at his alma mater, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and is a graduate of Providence-St. Mel School, Chicago.

He often shares his inspirational story of going from poverty and the urban mean streets of Chicago’s West Side to the top of his profession. Fountain is founder of WestSide Press Publishing, Chicago.
He is the author of five books, including his latest, Soul Cries: In Black & White and Shades of Gray. He is a frequent guest commentator on radio and television.