1991: Jim Hoagland, Washington Post, for searching and prescient columns on events leading up to the Gulf War and on the political problems of Mikhail Gorbachev.
1992: Anna Quindlen, New York Times, for her compelling columns on a wide range of personal and political topics.
1993: Liz Balmaseda, Miami Herald, for her commentary from Haiti about deteriorating political and social conditions and her columns about Cuban-Americans in Miami.
1994: William Raspberry, Washington Post, for his compelling commentaries on a variety of social and political topics.
1995: Jim Dwyer, Newsday, Long Island, N.Y., for his compelling and compassionate columns about New York City.
1996: E.R. Shipp, New York Daily News, for her penetrating columns on race, welfare and other social issues.
1997: Eileen McNamara, Boston Globe, for her many-sided columns on Massachusetts people and issues.
1998: Mike McAlary, New York Daily News, for reporting on the brutalization of a Haitian immigrant by police officers at a Brooklyn stationhouse.
1999:Maureen Dowd, New York Times, for her fresh and insightful columns on the impact of President Clinton's affair with Monica Lewinsky.
2000: Paul A. Gigot, Wall Street Journal, for his informative and insightful columns on politics and government.
2001: Dorothy Rabinowitz, Wall Street Journal, for her articles on American society and culture.
2002:Thomas Friedman, New York Times, for his clarity of vision, based on extensive reporting, in commenting on the worldwide impact of the terrorist threat.