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Leadership Conference Salutes Social Justice Champions

Feature Story by civilrights.org staff - 5/12/2003

More than 1,000 attendees from a wide range of community sectors joined Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR) Chairperson Dr. Dorothy Height and LCCR Executive Director Wade Henderson in saluting three extraordinary champions of social justice at LCCR's Hubert H. Humphrey Civil Rights Award Dinner: Representative John Lewis, D-Ga.; Northwestern University's Medill Innocence Project and The Center on Wrongful Convictions; and Sesame Workshop. Award presentations were made by William Novelli, AARP; Elaine Jones, NAACP LDF; and Dwight Robinson, Freddie Mac.

Dr. Height served as chair of the dinner. Wayne Winborne, Vice President, Business Diversity Outreach, represented Prudential Financial, a leading underwriter of the event. A dinner committee representing corporate, community and coalition member support was chaired by Kathryn C. Brown, Senior Vice President, Public Policy Development, Verizon.

With the award, LCCR honored outstanding individuals whose "selfless and devoted service in the cause of equality" best exemplifies the spirit of Hubert H. Humphrey, Vice-President, Senator, and outspoken civil rights pioneer:
  • Rep. John Lewis: An Alabama sharecropper's son, Rep. Lewis helped to organize the lunch counter sit-ins, the Freedom Rides, and the Selma-to-Montgomery voting rights march. Elected to Congress in 1986, he has championed civil rights health care, educational opportunity and other issues of importance to his constituents and all Americans.
  • Northwestern University-The Medill Innocence Project and The Center on Wrongful Convictions: The investigative efforts of Northwestern students and faculty led to the exoneration of several innocent parties and culminated in the commutation of 167 death sentences in Illinois, changing the way the nation views the death penalty.
  • Sesame Workshop: A respected leader in research in child development and education, as well as the producer of exemplary educational media, including the television program "Sesame Street, " Sesame Workshop has given generations of children a glimpse into a world that promotes equality, celebrates diversity, and encourages mutual respect.

LCCR also gave an advance screening of two television public service announcements developed through a fair housing public education campaign of LCCR's sister organization, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights Education Fund. The Fair Housing National Multimedia Campaign, www.fairhousinglaw.org, is designed to increase public awareness of the Fair Housing Act and its protections, encourage the reporting of fair housing discrimination to the appropriate agencies, and provide information and resources to help communities and institutions support individuals and families who exercise their fair housing rights.