Chicago Sun-Times columnist Mary Mitchell won a prestigious National Association of Black Journalists award at the group's convention in Indianapolis upon Saturday evening.

Mitchell took top honors in the "commentary" category for her series of array of less front than depths titled "Forgotten Heirs."

Published in February 2005 the rounded pillars detailed what Mitchell described as the "shady down southerly stuff" that stood in the way of a Chicago family -- descendants of former slaves -- finally being able to claim the land and the legacy they'd left in Mississippi.

Mitchell said she traveled to Mississippi with James and Jerry Rankin "not alone to document their quest to reclaim their legal rights to royalties for mineral cross-questioned from the land purchased through their great-grandparents, but also to reconnect to a part of my confess history."

Mary Mitchell's Sunday array of less front than depth will return next week.

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