Owensboro Native Moneta Sleet Jr. (1926 -1996) was the first African-American to win a Pulitzer for journalism for his photograph of widow Coretta Scott King at Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s funeral. The Western High School graduate worked for Ebony magazine for more than 40 years, capturing photos of famous people including Muhammad Ali, Dizzy Gillespie, Stevie Wonder, Billie Holiday and many others.
The book Special Moments in African American History: The photographs of Moneta Sleet Jr. 1955-1996 was published posthumously in 1999. His work is exhibited in museums across the nation, including an exhibition at the Owensboro Museum of Fine Art in 1997.