Lillian Smith Book Award
Encyclopedia
Jointly presented by the Southern Regional Council and the University of Georgia
Libraries, the Lillian Smith
Book Awards honor those authors who, through their outstanding writing about the American South, carry on Smith's legacy of elucidating the condition of racial and social inequity and proposing a vision of justice and human understanding.
Since 1968, the awards have been presented annually, except for 2003 when the Southern Regional Council experienced funding shortfalls. It is the South's oldest and best-known book award, and is presented in fiction and non-fiction categories.
University of Georgia
The University of Georgia is a public research university located in Athens, Georgia, United States. Founded in 1785, it is the oldest and largest of the state's institutions of higher learning and is one of multiple schools to claim the title of the oldest public university in the United States...
Libraries, the Lillian Smith
Lillian Smith (author)
Lillian Eugenia Smith was a writer and social critic of the Southern United States, known best for her best-selling novel Strange Fruit...
Book Awards honor those authors who, through their outstanding writing about the American South, carry on Smith's legacy of elucidating the condition of racial and social inequity and proposing a vision of justice and human understanding.
Since 1968, the awards have been presented annually, except for 2003 when the Southern Regional Council experienced funding shortfalls. It is the South's oldest and best-known book award, and is presented in fiction and non-fiction categories.
1968 Winner
- George B. Tindall for The Emergence of the New SouthNew SouthNew South, New South Democracy or New South Creed is a phrase that has been used intermittently since the American Civil War to describe the American South, after 1877. The term "New South" is used in contrast to the Old South of the plantation system of the antebellum period.The term has been used...
: 1913-1945, Louisiana State UniversityLouisiana State UniversityLouisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, most often referred to as Louisiana State University, or LSU, is a public coeducational university located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The University was founded in 1853 in what is now known as Pineville, Louisiana, under the name...
Press.
1969 Winner
- Dan T. CarterDan T. Carter-Life:He graduated from University of South Carolina, University of Wisconsin, and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, with a Ph.D. in 1967.He taught at the University of Maryland, and the University of Wisconsin....
for Scottsboro: A Tragedy of the American South, Louisiana State University Press.
1970 Winner
- Paul M. Gaston for The New South CreedCreedA creed is a statement of belief—usually a statement of faith that describes the beliefs shared by a religious community—and is often recited as part of a religious service. When the statement of faith is longer and polemical, as well as didactic, it is not called a creed but a Confession of faith...
: A Study in Southern MythmakingMythologyThe term mythology can refer either to the study of myths, or to a body or collection of myths. As examples, comparative mythology is the study of connections between myths from different cultures, whereas Greek mythology is the body of myths from ancient Greece...
, Alfred A. KnopfAlfred A. KnopfAlfred A. Knopf, Inc. is a New York publishing house, founded by Alfred A. Knopf, Sr. in 1915. It was acquired by Random House in 1960 and is now part of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group at Random House. The publishing house is known for its borzoi trademark , which was designed by co-founder...
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1972 Winner
- Robert ColesRobert ColesMartin Robert Coles is an American author, child psychiatrist, and professor at Harvard University.-Life and career:...
for Children of CrisisChildren of CrisisChildren of Crisis is a social study of children in the United States written by child psychiatrist Robert Coles and published in five volumes by Little, Brown and Company between 1967 and 1977. In 2003, the publisher released a one-volume compilation of selections from the series with a new...
, Vol. II: Migrants, Sharecroppers, Mountaineers, and Volume III: The South Goes North, Little, Brown and CompanyLittle, Brown and CompanyLittle, Brown and Company is a publishing house established by Charles Coffin Little and his partner, James Brown. Since 2006 it has been a constituent unit of Hachette Book Group USA.-19th century:...
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1973 Winners
- Harold Martin for Ralph McGillRalph McGillRalph Emerson McGill , American journalist, was best known as the anti-segregationist editor and publisher of the Atlanta Constitution newspaper. He won a Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing in 1959....
, Reporter, Little Brown and Company.
- Alice WalkerAlice WalkerAlice Malsenior Walker is an American author, poet, and activist. She has written both fiction and essays about race and gender...
for Revolutionary PetuniaPetuniaPetunia is a widely cultivated genus of flowering plants of South American origin, closely related with tobacco, cape gooseberries, tomatoes, deadly nightshades, potatoes and chili peppers; in the family Solanaceae. The popular flower derived its name from French, which took the word petun, meaning...
s and Other Poems, Harcourt Brace JovanovichHarcourt Trade PublishersHarcourt was a United States publishing firm with a long history of publishing fiction and nonfiction for children and adults. The company was based in San Diego, California, with an Editorial / Sales / Marketing / Rights offices in New York City and Orlando, Florida.In 2007, the U.S...
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1974 Winners
- C. Vann WoodwardC. Vann WoodwardComer Vann Woodward was a preeminent American historian focusing primarily on the American South and race relations. He was considered, along with Richard Hofstadter and Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., to be one of the most influential historians of the postwar era, 1940s-1970s, both by scholars and by...
for The Strange Career of Jim Crow, Oxford University PressOxford University PressOxford University Press is the largest university press in the world. It is a department of the University of Oxford and is governed by a group of 15 academics appointed by the Vice-Chancellor known as the Delegates of the Press. They are headed by the Secretary to the Delegates, who serves as...
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- Albert Murray for Train WhistleTrain whistleA train whistle or air whistle, , is an audible signaling device on a steam locomotive used to warn that the train is approaching, and to communicate with rail workers....
Guitar, McGraw-HillMcGraw-HillThe McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., is a publicly traded corporation headquartered in Rockefeller Center in New York City. Its primary areas of business are financial, education, publishing, broadcasting, and business services...
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1976 Winners
- James LoewenJames LoewenJames W. Loewen is a sociologist, historian, and author whose best-known work is Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong .-Early life and career:...
and Charles Sallis for MississippiMississippiMississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...
: Conflict and Change, Pantheon Books.
- Reynolds PriceReynolds PriceReynolds Price was an American novelist, poet, dramatist, essayist and the James B. Duke Professor of English at Duke University. Apart from English literature, Price had a lifelong interest in ancient languages and Biblical scholarship...
for The Surface of Earth, Atheneum.
1977 Winners
- Alex HaleyAlex HaleyAlexander Murray Palmer Haley was an African-American writer. He is best known as the author of Roots: The Saga of an American Family and the coauthor of The Autobiography of Malcolm X.-Early life:...
for RootsRoots: The Saga of an American FamilyRoots: The Saga of an American Family is a novel written by Alex Haley and first published in 1976. It tells the story of Kunta Kinte, an 18th-century African, captured as an adolescent and sold into slavery in the United States, and follows his life and the lives of his descendants in the U.S....
, Doubleday.
- Richard KlugerRichard KlugerRichard Kluger worked as a journalist before becoming an accomplished Pulitzer Prize-winning author and book publisher.-Journalism:...
for Simple Justice: The History of Brown v. Board of EducationBrown v. Board of EducationBrown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483 , was a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court that declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students unconstitutional. The decision overturned the Plessy v. Ferguson decision of 1896 which...
and Black America's Struggle for Equality, Alfred A. Knopf.
1978 Winners
- Will D. CampbellWill D. CampbellWill Davis Campbell is a Baptist minister, activist, author, and lecturer. Throughout his life, he has been a notable white supporter of civil rights in the Southern United States...
for Brother to a DragonflyDragonflyA dragonfly is a winged insect belonging to the order Odonata, the suborder Epiprocta or, in the strict sense, the infraorder Anisoptera . It is characterized by large multifaceted eyes, two pairs of strong transparent wings, and an elongated body...
, The Seabury Press.
- Garrett EppsGarrett EppsGarrett Epps is an American legal scholar, novelist, and journalist. He is Professor of Law at the University of Baltimore; previously he was the Orlando J. and Marian H. Hollis Professor of Law at the University of Oregon....
for The Shad Treatment, PutnamG. P. Putnam's SonsG. P. Putnam's Sons was a major United States book publisher based in New York City, New York. Since 1996, it has been an imprint of the Penguin Group.-History:...
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1979 Winners
- Marion Wright and Arnold Shankman for Human RightsHuman rightsHuman rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
Odyssey, Moore Publishing.
- Ernest J. Gaines for In My Father's House, Alfred A. Knopf.
1980 Winners
- Jacquelyn Dowd HallJacquelyn Dowd HallJacquelyn Dowd Hall is an American historian, and Julia Cherry Spruill Professor at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.-Life:She graduated from Columbia University with an MA and Ph.D...
for Revolt Against ChivalryChivalryChivalry is a term related to the medieval institution of knighthood which has an aristocratic military origin of individual training and service to others. Chivalry was also the term used to refer to a group of mounted men-at-arms as well as to martial valour...
: Jessie Daniel Ames and the Women's Campaign Against LynchingLynchingLynching is an extrajudicial execution carried out by a mob, often by hanging, but also by burning at the stake or shooting, in order to punish an alleged transgressor, or to intimidate, control, or otherwise manipulate a population of people. It is related to other means of social control that...
, Columbia UniversityColumbia UniversityColumbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
Press.
- Cormac McCarthyCormac McCarthyCormac McCarthy is an American novelist and playwright. He has written ten novels, spanning the Southern Gothic, Western, and modernist genres. He received the Pulitzer Prize and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction for The Road...
for SuttreeSuttreeSuttree is a semi-autobiographical novel by Cormac McCarthy, published in 1979. Set in 1951 in Knoxville, Tennessee, the novel follows Cornelius Suttree, who has repudiated his former life of privilege to become a fisherman on the Tennessee River. The novel has a fragmented structure with many...
, Random HouseRandom HouseRandom House, Inc. is the largest general-interest trade book publisher in the world. It has been owned since 1998 by the German private media corporation Bertelsmann and has become the umbrella brand for Bertelsmann book publishing. Random House also has a movie production arm, Random House Films,...
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1981 Winners
- John GaventaJohn GaventaJohn Gaventa is the director of the Coady International Institute and Vice-President of International Development at St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, Canada....
for Power and Powerlessness: Quiescence and Rebellion in an Appalachian Valley, University of Illinois PressUniversity of Illinois PressThe University of Illinois Press , is a major American university press and part of the University of Illinois system. Founded in 1918, the press publishes some 120 new books each year, plus 33 scholarly journals, and several electronic projects...
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- Pat ConroyPat ConroyPat Conroy , is a New York Times bestselling author who has written several acclaimed novels and memoirs. Two of his novels, The Prince of Tides and The Great Santini, were made into Oscar-nominated films.-Early life:...
for The Lords of DisciplineThe Lords of DisciplineThe Lords of Discipline is a 1980 novel by Pat Conroy.-Summary:The novel's narrator, Will McLean, attends the Carolina Military Institute in Charleston, from 1963 to 1967. The novel takes place in four parts. The first describes the beginning of his senior year and the admission of new freshmen...
, Houghton MifflinHoughton MifflinHoughton Mifflin Harcourt is an educational and trade publisher in the United States. Headquartered in Boston's Back Bay, it publishes textbooks, instructional technology materials, assessments, reference works, and fiction and non-fiction for both young readers and adults.-History:The company was...
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1982 Winners
- Harry S. Ashmore for Hearts and Minds: The Anatomy of RacismRacismRacism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
from RooseveltFranklin D. RooseveltFranklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
to ReaganRonald ReaganRonald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
, McGraw-Hill.
- John EhleJohn EhleJohn Marsden Ehle, Jr. is an American writer known best for his fiction set in the Appalachian Mountains of the American South.-Biography and literary career:...
for The Winter People, Harper & Row.
1983 Winners
- Fred Hobson for South-Watching: Selected Essays by Gerald W. JohnsonGerald W. JohnsonGerald White Johnson was a journalist, editor, essayist, historian, biographer, and novelist. Over his nearly 75 year career he was known for being "one of the most eloquent spokespersons for America’s adversary culture."...
, University of North Carolina PressUniversity of North Carolina PressThe University of North Carolina Press , founded in 1922, is a university press that is part of the University of North Carolina....
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- Roy Hoffman for Almost Family, Dial PressDial PressThe Dial Press was a publishing house founded in 1923 by Lincoln MacVeagh.Dial Press shared a building with The Dial and Scofield Thayer worked with both. The first imprint was issued in 1924. Authors included Elizabeth Bowen, W.R...
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1984 Winners
- John Egerton for Generations: An American Family, University of KentuckyUniversity of KentuckyThe University of Kentucky, also known as UK, is a public co-educational university and is one of the state's two land-grant universities, located in Lexington, Kentucky...
Press.
- Alice WalkerAlice WalkerAlice Malsenior Walker is an American author, poet, and activist. She has written both fiction and essays about race and gender...
for In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens: Womanist ProseIn Search of Our Mothers' Gardens: Womanist ProsePublished in 1983, In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens: Womanist Prose is a collection composed of thirty-six separate pieces written by Alice Walker. The essays, articles, reviews, statements, and speeches were written between 1966 and 1982. Many are based on her understanding of "womanist" theory...
, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
- Eudora WeltyEudora WeltyEudora Alice Welty was an American author of short stories and novels about the American South. Her novel The Optimist's Daughter won the Pulitzer Prize in 1973. Welty was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, among numerous awards. She was the first living author to have her works published...
- Special Lifetime Award.
1985 Winners
- James FarmerJames L. Farmer, Jr.James Leonard Farmer, Jr. was a civil rights activist and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement. He was the initiator and organizer of the 1961 Freedom Ride, which eventually led to the desegregation of inter-state transportation in the United States.In 1942, Farmer co-founded the Committee...
for Lay Bare the Heart: An Autobiography of the Civil Rights MovementCivil rights movementThe civil rights movement was a worldwide political movement for equality before the law occurring between approximately 1950 and 1980. In many situations it took the form of campaigns of civil resistance aimed at achieving change by nonviolent forms of resistance. In some situations it was...
, Arbor House.
- Peter TaylorPeter Matthew Hillsman TaylorFor other people named Peter Taylor, see Peter Taylor.Peter Matthew Hillsman Taylor was a U.S. author and writer.-Biography:...
for The Old Forest and Other Stories, Dial Press.
1986 Winner
- A.J. Mojtabai for Blessed Assurance: At Home with the Bomb in Amarillo, TexasAmarillo, TexasAmarillo is the 14th-largest city, by population, in the state of Texas, the largest in the Texas Panhandle, and the seat of Potter County. A portion of the city extends into Randall County. The population was 190,695 at the 2010 census...
, Houghton Mifflin.
1987 Winners
- Thomas L. Johnson, and Phillip C. Dunn (ed.) for A True Likeness: The Black South of Richard Samuel Roberts, 1920–1936, Algonquin Books.
- Pauli MurrayPauli MurrayThe Reverend Dr. Anna Pauline Murray was an American civil rights advocate, women's rights activist and feminist, lawyer, writer, poet, teacher, and ordained priest....
for Song in a Weary Throat: An American PilgrimagePilgrimageA pilgrimage is a journey or search of great moral or spiritual significance. Typically, it is a journey to a shrine or other location of importance to a person's beliefs and faith...
, Harper & Row.
- Mary HoodMary HoodMary Hood is an award-winning fiction writer of predominantly Southern literature, who has authored two short story collections - How Far She Went and And Venus is Blue - and a novel, Familiar Heat...
for And VenusVenusVenus is the second planet from the Sun, orbiting it every 224.7 Earth days. The planet is named after Venus, the Roman goddess of love and beauty. After the Moon, it is the brightest natural object in the night sky, reaching an apparent magnitude of −4.6, bright enough to cast shadows...
is Blue: Stories, Ticknor & Fields.
1988 Winners
- Melton A. McLaurin for Separate Pasts: Growing Up White in the segregatedRacial segregationRacial segregation is the separation of humans into racial groups in daily life. It may apply to activities such as eating in a restaurant, drinking from a water fountain, using a public toilet, attending school, going to the movies, or in the rental or purchase of a home...
South, University of Georgia PressUniversity of Georgia PressThe University of Georgia Press or UGA Press is a publishing house and is a member of the Association of American University Presses.Founded in 1938, the UGA Press is a division of the University of Georgia and is located on the campus in Athens, Georgia, USA...
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- C. Eric Lincoln for The Avenue: Clayton City, Morrow.
1989 Winners
- Melany Nielson for Even MississippiMississippiMississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...
, University of AlabamaUniversity of AlabamaThe University of Alabama is a public coeducational university located in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States....
Press.
- Madison Smartt BellMadison Smartt BellMadison Smartt Bell is an American novelist. He was raised Nashville, and lived in New York, and London before settling in Baltimore, Maryland....
for Soldier's Joy, Ticknor & Fields.
- Gloria NaylorGloria NaylorGloria Naylor is an African American novelist and educator.-Early life:Born in New York, she was the first child to Roosevelt Naylor and Alberta McAlpin. As Naylor grew up, her father was a transit worker and her mother was a telephone operator. When Naylor was young, her mother encouraged her to...
for Mama Day, Ticknor & Fields.
1990 Winners
- Wayne FlyntWayne FlyntWayne Flynt is Professor Emeritus in the Department of History at Auburn University. He has won numerous teaching awards and been a Distinguished University Professor for many years. His research focuses on Southern culture, Alabama politics, Southern religion, education reform, and poverty. He...
for Poor But Proud: Alabama'sAlabamaAlabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...
Poor Whites, University of Alabama Press.
- Dori SandersDori SandersDori Sanders is an African American novelist. Her first novel, Clover , was a bestseller. She has also written a cookbook, Dori Sanders' country cooking, which mixes recipes and anecdotes.-Works:...
for Clover: A Novel, Algonquin Books.
1991 Winners
- J.L. Chestnut, Jr., and Julia Cass for Black in Selma : The Uncommon Life of J.L. Chestnut, Jr.: Politics and Power in a Small American Town, Farrar, Straus & Giroux.
- Mary Ward Brown for Tongues of Flame, E.P. Dutton.
1992 Winners
- Marian Wright EdelmanMarian Wright EdelmanMarian Wright Edelman is an American activist for the rights of children. She is president and founder of the Children's Defense Fund.-Early years:...
for The Measure of Our Success: A Letter to My Children and Yours, Beacon PressBeacon PressBeacon Press is an American non-profit book publisher. Founded in 1854 by the American Unitarian Association, it is currently a department of the Unitarian Universalist Association.Beacon Press is a member of the Association of American University Presses....
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- Melissa Fay GreeneMelissa Fay GreeneMelissa Fay Greene is an American nonfiction author. A 1975 graduate of Oberlin College, Greene is the author of five books of nonfiction, a two-time National Book Award finalist, recipient of an honorary doctorate from Emory University in 2010, and a 2011 inductee into the Georgia Writers Hall of...
for Praying for Sheetrock, Addison-WesleyAddison-WesleyAddison-Wesley was a book publisher in Boston, Massachusetts, best known for its textbooks and computer literature. As well as publishing books, Addison-Wesley also distributed its technical titles through the Safari Books Online e-reference service...
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- Denise GiardinaDenise GiardinaDenise Giardina is a novelist. Her book Storming Heaven was a Discovery Selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club and received the 1987 W. D. Weatherford Award for the best published work about the Appalachian South. The Unquiet Earth received an American Book Award and the Lillian Smith Book Award...
for The Unquiet EarthThe Unquiet EarthThe Unquiet Earth is Denise Giardina's third novel. It was published in 1992 and won the W.D. Weatherford Award that year.-Plot summary:...
, W.W. Norton & Company.
1993 Winners
- Charles W. Eagles for Outside Agitator: Jon Daniels and the Civil Rights Movement in Alabama, University of North Carolina Press.
- William Baldwin for The Hard To Catch Mercy, Algonquin Books of Chapel HillChapel Hill, North CarolinaChapel Hill is a town in Orange County, North Carolina, United States and the home of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and UNC Health Care...
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- Margaret Rose Gladney for How Am I To Be Heard? Letters of Lillian Smith, University of North Carolina Press.
1994 Winners
- John Gregory BrownJohn Gregory Brown-Background and education:Brown was born on July 31, 1960 in New Orleans, Louisiana. He received his B.A. from Tulane University in 1982, and his M.A. from Johns Hopkins University in 1988...
for Decorations in a Ruined CemeteryCemeteryA cemetery is a place in which dead bodies and cremated remains are buried. The term "cemetery" implies that the land is specifically designated as a burying ground. Cemeteries in the Western world are where the final ceremonies of death are observed...
, Houghton Mifflin Company. - Henry Louis Gates, Jr.Henry Louis Gates, Jr.Henry Louis “Skip” Gates, Jr., is an American literary critic, educator, scholar, writer, editor, and public intellectual. He was the first African American to receive the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Fellowship. He has received numerous honorary degrees and awards for his teaching, research, and...
for Colored PeopleColoredColored is a term once widely used in the United States to describe black people and Native Americans...
, Alfred A. Knopf.
- John DittmerJohn Dittmer-Life:He graduated from Indiana University, with bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees.He taught American history at Tougaloo College from 1967 to 1979, at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Brown University, and at DePauw University from 1985 until 2003....
for Local People: The Struggle for Civil Rights in Mississippi, University of Illinois Press.
1995 Winners
- Charles M. PayneCharles M. PayneCharles M. Payne, Jr. is an American academic whose areas of study include civil rights activism, urban education reform, social inequality, and modern African-American history. He is currently the Chief Education Officer for Chicago Public Schools and was previously the Frank P...
for I've Got the Light of Freedom: The Organizing Tradition and the Mississippi Freedom Struggle, University of CaliforniaUniversity of CaliforniaThe University of California is a public university system in the U.S. state of California. Under the California Master Plan for Higher Education, the University of California is a part of the state's three-tier public higher education system, which also includes the California State University...
Press.
- Adam FaircloughAdam FaircloughAdam Fairclough is a British historian of the United States. He is currently the Raymond and Beverly Sackler Professor of American History at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands. Since 2008, he has also served as the chair of the Netherlands American Studies Association...
for Race & Democracy: The Civil Rights Struggle in LouisianaLouisianaLouisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
, 1915-1972, University of Georgia Press.
- Mary Lee SettleMary Lee SettleMary Lee Settle was an American writer and winner of the National Book Award for her 1978 novel Blood Tie...
for Choices, Nan A. Talese/Doubleday.
1996 Winners
- Michael D'OrsoMike D'OrsoMike D'Orso is an American journalist based in Norfolk, Virginia. He is known as the author of the books Like Judgment Day: The Ruin and Redemption of a Town Called Rosewood and Eagle Blue: A Team, A Tribe and a High School Basketball Season in Arctic Alaska , and as co-author of Walking With the...
for Like Judgment Day: The Ruin and Redemption of a Town Called RosewoodRosewood, FloridaThe Rosewood massacre was a violent, racially motivated conflict that took place during the first week of January 1923 in rural Levy County, Florida, United States. At least six blacks and two whites were killed, and the town of Rosewood was abandoned and destroyed in what contemporary news reports...
, Grosset/Putnam.
- Constance W. Curry for Silver Rights, Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill.
- Anthony GroomsAnthony GroomsAnthony Grooms, originally from Louisa, Virginia, has written several pieces of literature and has won many awards for his writings. Grooms is now a professor at Kennesaw State University, near Atlanta, Georgia, and teaches creative writing along with other English courses.-Biography:Anthony “Tony”...
for Trouble No More, La Questa.
1997 Winners
- John M. BarryJohn M. BarryJohn M. Barry is an American author and historian, perhaps best known for his books on the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and the influenza pandemic of 1918....
for The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927Great Mississippi Flood of 1927The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 was the most destructive river flood in the history of the United States.-Events:The flood began when heavy rains pounded the central basin of the Mississippi in the summer of 1926. By September, the Mississippi's tributaries in Kansas and Iowa were swollen to...
and How It Changed America, Simon & SchusterSimon & SchusterSimon & Schuster, Inc., a division of CBS Corporation, is a publisher founded in New York City in 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. It is one of the four largest English-language publishers, alongside Random House, Penguin and HarperCollins...
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- Charles FrazierCharles FrazierCharles Frazier is an award-winning American historical novelist.Frazier was born in Asheville, North Carolina, and graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1973. He earned an M.A. from Appalachian State University in the mid-1970s, and received his Ph.D. in English from the University...
for Cold Mountain, Atlantic Monthly Press.
1998 Winners
- John LewisJohn Lewis (politician)John Robert Lewis is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 1987. He was a leader in the American Civil Rights Movement and chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee , playing a key role in the struggle to end segregation...
for Walking with the Wind: A MemoirMemoirA memoir , is a literary genre, forming a subclass of autobiography – although the terms 'memoir' and 'autobiography' are almost interchangeable. Memoir is autobiographical writing, but not all autobiographical writing follows the criteria for memoir set out below...
of the Movement, with Michael D'OrsoMike D'OrsoMike D'Orso is an American journalist based in Norfolk, Virginia. He is known as the author of the books Like Judgment Day: The Ruin and Redemption of a Town Called Rosewood and Eagle Blue: A Team, A Tribe and a High School Basketball Season in Arctic Alaska , and as co-author of Walking With the...
, Simon & SchusterSimon & SchusterSimon & Schuster, Inc., a division of CBS Corporation, is a publisher founded in New York City in 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. It is one of the four largest English-language publishers, alongside Random House, Penguin and HarperCollins...
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- Elizabeth Cox for Night Talk, Graywolf PressGraywolf PressGraywolf Press is an independent, non-profit publisher located in St. Paul, Minnesota. Founded on a dedication to the creation and promotion of thoughtful and imaginative contemporary literature essential to a vital and diverse culture, Graywolf Press publishes fiction, non-fiction, and poetry.Now...
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1999 Winners
- J. Morgan KousserJ. Morgan KousserJoseph Morgan Kousser is a professor of history and social sciences at the California Institute of Technology. Kousser is author of The Shaping of Southern Politics: Suffrage Restriction and the Establishment of the One-Party South, 1880-1910 and Colorblind Injustice: Minority Voting Rights and...
for "Colorblind Injustice: Minority Voting Rights and the Undoing of the Second Reconstruction", University of North Carolina Press.
- Leroy Davis for A Clashing of the Soul: John Hope and the Dilemma of African-American Leadership and Black Higher EducationHigher educationHigher, post-secondary, tertiary, or third level education refers to the stage of learning that occurs at universities, academies, colleges, seminaries, and institutes of technology...
in the Early Twentieth Century, University of Georgia Press.
2000 Winners
- Lawrence N. Powell for Troubled Memory: Anne Levy, The HolocaustThe HolocaustThe Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...
, and David Duke'sDavid DukeDavid Ernest Duke is a former Grand Wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan an American activist and writer, and former Republican Louisiana State Representative. He was also a former candidate in the Republican presidential primaries in 1992, and in the Democratic presidential primaries in...
Louisiana, University of North Carolina Press.
- Andrew M. ManisAndrew M. ManisAndrew Michael Manis is a historian, author, and professor at Macon State College, in Macon, Georgia....
for A Fire You Can't Put Out: The Civil Rights Life of Birmingham'sBirmingham, AlabamaBirmingham is the largest city in Alabama. The city is the county seat of Jefferson County. According to the 2010 United States Census, Birmingham had a population of 212,237. The Birmingham-Hoover Metropolitan Area, in estimate by the U.S...
Reverend Fred ShuttlesworthFred ShuttlesworthReverend Fred Shuttlesworth, born Freddie Lee Robinson, was a U.S. civil rights activist who led the fight against segregation and other forms of racism as a minister in Birmingham, Alabama...
, University of Alabama Press.
- Michael Keith Honey for Black Workers Remember: An Oral HistoryOral historyOral history is the collection and study of historical information about individuals, families, important events, or everyday life using audiotapes, videotapes, or transcriptions of planned interviews...
of Segregation, Unionism and the Freedom Struggle, University of California Press.
2001 Winners
- Hal CrowtherHal CrowtherHal Crowther is an American journalist and essayist.His essays have been published in many anthologies, including Novello: Ten Years of Great American Writing...
for Cathedrals of KudzuKudzuKudzu is a plant in the genus Pueraria in the pea family Fabaceae, subfamily Faboideae. It is a climbing, coiling, and trailing vine native to southern Japan and southeast China. Its name comes from the Japanese name for the plant, . It is a weed that climbs over trees or shrubs and grows so...
: A Personal Landscape of the South, Louisiana State University Press.
- Pam DurbanPam DurbanRosa Pam Durban is an American novelist, and short story writer.-Life:She graduated from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and from the University of Iowa with an M.F.A. in 1979...
for So Far Back, Picador USA Robert P. “Bob” Moses, Charles E. Cobb, Jr., Radical Equations, Beacon Press.
- Natasha TretheweyNatasha TretheweyNatasha Trethewey is an American poet who won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize in poetry for her 2006 collection, Native Guard.Trethewey was born in Gulfport, Mississippi. She earned the A.B. in English from the University of Georgia, an M.A. in poetry from Hollins University, and an M.F.A. in poetry from...
for Domestic Work, Graywolf Press.
2002 Winners
- Anthony GroomsAnthony GroomsAnthony Grooms, originally from Louisa, Virginia, has written several pieces of literature and has won many awards for his writings. Grooms is now a professor at Kennesaw State University, near Atlanta, Georgia, and teaches creative writing along with other English courses.-Biography:Anthony “Tony”...
for Bombingham, Free Press.
- Mark Newman for Getting Right with God: Southern Baptists and DesegregationDesegregationDesegregation is the process of ending the separation of two groups usually referring to races. This is most commonly used in reference to the United States. Desegregation was long a focus of the American Civil Rights Movement, both before and after the United States Supreme Court's decision in...
, 1945-1995, University of Alabama Press
- Keith Wailoo for Dying in the City of the Blues: Sickle Cell Anemia and the Politics of Race and Health, University of North Carolina Press.
- William H. Chafe, Raymond Gavins, and Robert Korstad editors, with Paul Ortiz, Robert Parrish, Jennifer Ritterhouse, Keisha Roberts, Remembering Jim Crow: African Americans Tell About Life in the Segregated South, The New Press.
2004 Winners
- Barbara Ransby for Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement; A Radical Democratic Vision, University of North Carolina Press.
- Elizabeth R. Varon for Southern Lady, YankeeYankeeThe term Yankee has several interrelated and often pejorative meanings, usually referring to people originating in the northeastern United States, or still more narrowly New England, where application of the term is largely restricted to descendants of the English settlers of the region.The...
Spy: The True Story of Elizabeth Van LewElizabeth Van LewElizabeth Van Lew was a well-born Richmond, Virginia resident who built and operated an extensive spy ring for the United States during the American Civil War.-Early life:...
, A Union Agent in the Heart of the ConfederacyConfederate States of AmericaThe Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...
, Oxford University Press.
- Frank X. Walker for Buffalo Dance, The Journey of York, The University Press of KentuckyUniversity of KentuckyThe University of Kentucky, also known as UK, is a public co-educational university and is one of the state's two land-grant universities, located in Lexington, Kentucky...
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2005 Winners
- Stephanie M. H. Camp for Closer to Freedom: EnslavedSlaverySlavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...
Women and Everyday Resistance in the PlantationPlantationA plantation is a long artificially established forest, farm or estate, where crops are grown for sale, often in distant markets rather than for local on-site consumption...
South, University of North Carolina PressUniversity of North Carolina PressThe University of North Carolina Press , founded in 1922, is a university press that is part of the University of North Carolina....
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- Frye Gaillard for Cradle of Freedom: Alabama and the Movement that Changed America, University of Alabama PressUniversity of Alabama PressThe University of Alabama Press was founded in 1945 and is the scholarly publishing arm of the University of Alabama.An Editorial Board composed of representatives from all doctoral degree granting public universities within Alabama oversees the publishing program. Projects are selected that...
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- Tayari JonesTayari JonesTayari Jones is an African American author and winner of the Hurston-Wright Legacy Award for Debut Fiction...
for The Untelling: A Novel, Time WarnerTime WarnerTime Warner is one of the world's largest media companies, headquartered in the Time Warner Center in New York City. Formerly two separate companies, Warner Communications, Inc...
Book Group.
2006 Winners
- Heather Andrea Williams for Self-Taught: African American Education in Slavery and Freedom, University of North Carolina PressUniversity of North Carolina PressThe University of North Carolina Press , founded in 1922, is a university press that is part of the University of North Carolina....
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- W. Fitzhugh BrundageW. Fitzhugh BrundageWilliam Fitzhugh Brundage is an American historian, and William B. Umstead Professor of History, at University of North Carolina.He graduated from the University of Chicago, and from Harvard University with an MA and Ph.D, in 1988....
for The Southern Past: A Clash of Race and Memory, Belknap Press of Harvard University PressHarvard University PressHarvard University Press is a publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University, and focused on academic publishing. In 2005, it published 220 new titles. It is a member of the Association of American University Presses. Its current director is William P...
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2007 Winners
- Natasha TretheweyNatasha TretheweyNatasha Trethewey is an American poet who won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize in poetry for her 2006 collection, Native Guard.Trethewey was born in Gulfport, Mississippi. She earned the A.B. in English from the University of Georgia, an M.A. in poetry from Hollins University, and an M.F.A. in poetry from...
for Native Guard, Houghton Mifflin Co.
- Matthew D. Lassiter for The Silent Majority: Suburban Politics In the Sunbelt South Princeton University PressPrinceton University Press-Further reading:* "". Artforum International, 2005.-External links:* * * * *...
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2008 Winners
- Joseph Crespino for In Search of Another Country: Mississippi and the Conservative Counterrevolution Princeton University PressPrinceton University Press-Further reading:* "". Artforum International, 2005.-External links:* * * * *...
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- Wesley C. Hogan for Many Minds, One Heart: SNCC's Dream for a New America University of North Carolina PressUniversity of North Carolina PressThe University of North Carolina Press , founded in 1922, is a university press that is part of the University of North Carolina....
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2009 Winners
- Areila J. Gross for What Blood Won't Tell: A History of Race on Trial in America Harvard University PressHarvard University PressHarvard University Press is a publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University, and focused on academic publishing. In 2005, it published 220 new titles. It is a member of the Association of American University Presses. Its current director is William P...
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- Bob Zellner with Constance W. Curry for The Wrong Side of Murder Creek: A White Southerner in the Freedom Movement NewSouth Books, Inc.
2010 Winners
- Amy Louise Wood, for Lynching and Spectacle: Witnessing Racial Violence in America, 1890-1940, University of North Carolina Press
- Charles W. Eagles, for The Price of Defiance: James Meredith and the Integration of Ole Miss, University of North Carolina Press