BirminghamWatch’s Solomon Crenshaw Jr. recently won a first place award from Alabama Media Professionals for his story “Jefferson County’s ‘Blue Wave:’ How the First Black Sheriff and District Attorney Won Election,” which he co-wrote with Virginia MacDonald, another writer for BirminghamWatch.

Crenshaw also won a first place award from AMP and an honorable mention from the National Federation of Press Women for a story published in the Birmingham Times about people living in the shadows of pollution in North Birmingham. And he won a first place award for a feature on AAMU football player Vernon Moland Jr. that ran in the Times.

A feature story about Woodlawn barber Vincent Oliver, published on Alabama NewsCenter, earned Crenshaw a second place award.

Crenshaw covers Jefferson County government for BirminghamWatch.