Spingarn Medal

Updated on Nov 14, 2023

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The Spingarn Medal is awarded annually by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) for outstanding achievement by an African American.

The award, which consists of a gold medal, was created in 1914 by Joel Elias Spingarn, Chairman of the Board of the NAACP. It was first awarded to biologist Ernest E. Just in 1915, and has been given most years thereafter.

Well-known recipients of the award include: W. E. B. Du Bois, George Washington Carver, Marian Anderson, Paul Robeson, Thurgood Marshall, Jackie Robinson, Martin Luther King, Jr., Langston Hughes, Sammy Davis, Jr., Alex Haley, Andrew Young, Rosa Parks, Coleman Young, Lena Horne, Bill Cosby, Jr., Jesse Jackson, Colin Powell, Alvin Ailey and Maya Angelou.

Complete list of winners

1915 Ernest E. Just (biologist)

1916 Charles Young (U.S. Army officer)

1917 Harry T. Burleigh (composer, pianist, singer)

1918 William Stanley Braithwaite (poet, editor, literary critic).

1919 Archibald H. Grimké (U.S. Consul, president of American Negro Academy, president of D.C. Branch of the NAACP)

1920 William E. B. Du Bois (author, founder of NAACP)

1921 Charles S. Gilpin (actor)

1922 Mary B. Talbert (president, National Association of Colored Women)

1923 George Washington Carver (botanist)

1924 Roland Hayes (singer, soloist with Boston Symphony Orchestra)

1925 James Weldon Johnson (poet, Executive Secretary of the NAACP)

1926 Carter G. Woodson (historian and founder of Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, editor of Negro Orators and Their Orations)

1927 Anthony Overton (businessman, president of Victory Life Insurance Company)

1928 Charles W. Chesnutt (author)

1929 Mordecai W. Johnson (educator)

1930 Henry A. Hunt (high school principal)

1931 Richard B. Harrison (actor)

1932 Robert Russa Moton (principal of Tuskegee Institute)

1933 Max Yergan (missionary)

1934 William T. B. Williams (dean of Tuskegee Institute)

1935 Mary McLeod Bethune (educator and activist)

1936 John Hope (educator) [awarded posthumously]

1937 Walter F. White (executive secretary of the NAACP)

1938 No award given

1939 Marian Anderson (opera singer)

1940 Louis T. Wright (surgeon)

1941 Richard N. Wright (author)

1942 A. Philip Randolph (labor leader)

1943 William H. Hastie (jurist and educator)

1944 Charles R. Drew (physician)

1945 Paul Robeson (singer, actor)

1946 Thurgood Marshall (lawyer and later Solicitor General and Supreme Court justice)

1947 Percy L. Julian (research chemist)

1948 Channing Heggie Tobias (participant on the President's Committee on Civil Rights)

1949 Ralph J. Bunche (diplomat and Nobel laureate, 1950)

1950 Charles Hamilton Houston (Chairman, NAACP Legal Committee)

1951 Mabel Keaton Staupers (leader of the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses)

1952 Harry T. Moore (NAACP leader, martyr in the "crusade for freedom")

1953 Paul R. Williams (architect)

1954 Theodore K. Lawless (physician, educator, philanthropist)

1955 Carl J. Murphy (editor, publisher, civic leader)

1956 Jack R. Robinson (athlete)

1957 Martin Luther King, Jr. (activist and minister)

1958 Daisy Bates and the Little Rock Nine (desegregation activists)

1958 Melba Pattillo Beals (Student of the Little Rock Nine)

1958 Ernest Green (Student of the Little Rock Nine)

1958 Elizabeth Eckford (Student of Little Rock Nine)

1958 Jefferson Thomas (Student of the Little Rock Nine)

1958 Terrence Roberts (Student of the Little Rock Nine)

1958 Carlotta Walls LaNier (Student of the Little Rock Nine)

1958 Minnijean Brown-Trickey (Student of the Little Rock Nine)

1958 Gloria Ray Karlmark (Student of the Little Rock Nine)

1958 Thelma Mothershed (Student of the Little Rock Nine)

1959 Edward "Duke" Ellington (composer and pianist)

1960 J. Langston Hughes (poet and playwright)

1961 Kenneth B. Clark (professor of Psychology at CCNY)

1962 Robert C. Weaver (Administrator of Housing and Home Finance Agency)

1963 Medgar W. Evers (martyr in the civil rights movement in Mississippi)

1964 Roy Wilkins (Executive Director of the NAACP)

1965 Leontyne Price (Metropolitan Opera star)

1966 John Harold Johnson (founder and president of Johnson Publishing Company)

1967 Edward W. Brooke III (first African American to win popular election to the U.S. Senate)

1968 Sammy Davis, Jr. (entertainer)

1969 Clarence M. Mitchell, Jr. (NAACP regional director, civil rights lobbyist)

1970 Jacob Lawrence (painter)

1971 Leon Howard Sullivan (clergyman, activist)

1972 Gordon Parks (photographer, writer, filmmaker, composer)

1973 Wilson Riles (educator)

1974 Damon J. Keith (jurist)

1975 Henry L. Aaron (athlete)

1976 Alvin Ailey, Jr. (choreographer and dancer)

1977 Alexander P. Haley (author)

1978 Andrew Young (diplomat, civil rights activist, minister)

1979 Rosa L. Parks (activist, secretary of the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP)

1980 Rayford W. Logan (educator, historian, author)

1981 Coleman A. Young (politician)

1982 Benjamin Mays (educator, civil rights activist, president of Morehouse College)

1983 Lena Horne (singer)

1984 No award given

1985 Thomas Bradley (mayor of Los Angeles)

1985 William H. Cosby, Jr. (entertainer, author and educator)

1986 Benjamin Hooks (Executive Director of the NAACP)

1987 Percy Sutton (public servant, businessman, community leader)

1988 Frederick Douglass Patterson (educator, veterinarian, visionary, humanitarian)

1989 Jesse L. Jackson (civil rights activist and Presidential candidate)

1990 L. Douglas Wilder (public servant)

1991 General Colin L. Powell (public servant)

1992 Barbara C. Jordan (public servant)

1993 Dorothy I. Height (president of the National Council of Negro Women)

1994 Maya Angelou (author)

1995 John Hope Franklin (historian, educator)

1996 Aloyisus Leon Higginbotham, Jr. (jurist, public servant)

1997 Carl T. Rowan (journalist)

1998 Myrlie Evers-Williams (civil rights activist, Chairman of the NAACP)

1999 Earl G. Graves (chairman of Black Enterprise Magazine)

2000 Oprah Winfrey (actress and philanthropist)

2001 Vernon E. Jordan, Jr. (public servant)

2002 John Lewis (civil rights activist and member of Congress)

2003 Constance Baker Motley (federal court judge, state senator)

2004 Robert L. Carter (federal court judge, cofounder of National Conference of Black Lawyers)

2005 Oliver W. Hill (civil rights lawyer)

2006 Benjamin Carson (neurosurgeon)

2007 John Conyers (congressman)

2008 Ruby Dee (actress)

2009 Julian Bond (activist)

2010 Cicely Tyson (actress)

2011 Frankie Muse Freeman (attorney and civil rights activist)

2012 Harry Belafonte (singer, songwriter, actor and social activist)

2013 Jessye Norman (opera singer)

2014 Quincy Jones (musician, producer)

2015 Sidney Poitier (actor)

2016 Nathaniel R. Jones (judge)

References

Spingarn Medal Wikipedia

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