Pulitzer Prize winning columnist Cynthia Tucker spoke at the Mercantile Library's sixth annual Harriet Beecher Stowe Lecture on June 10, 2008.

Tucker is editorial page editor of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and a syndicated columnist whose commentary appears in more than 70 newspapers around the country. Tucker's weekly column ''As I See It,'' syndicated by Universal Press Syndicate and won the Pulitzer Prize for commentary in 2007. Tucker has considerable reporting experience, having covered local governments, national politics, crime and education in the states and overseas. She is also a frequent television commentator.