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June 29
It is awarded yearly by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). It was created by Joel Elias Spingarn, then the chairman of the NAACP. The medal has two purposes: one is to call the attention of the American people to the achievement and distinguished work among African-Americans, and the other is to serve as a reward for such achievement, helping stimulate the ambition of African-American youth. The Spingarn Medal is made of gold, and valued at $100. To make certain that this award is continued on an indefinite basis, Joel E. Spingarn donated in his will $20,000 to the NAACP with the following statement: “To perpetuate the lifelong interest of my brother, Arthur B. Spingarn, of my wife, Amy E. Spingarn, and of myself in the achievements of the American Negro.” If this organization fails to continue, the Spingarn Medal is to be managed by the president of Howard or Fisk University. In 1915, the NAACP set up a committee that consisted of several prominent persons, such as John Hope, president of Morehouse College, John Hurst, bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, and William H. Taft, president of the United States of America, to select the recipients of the Spingarn Medal. The first person to receive this award was Ernest Everett Just, a former professor of biology at Howard University, in 1915. Since that time, there has been a recipient each year except one (1938). In 2003, the NAACP Board of Directors Chairman Julian Bond named Constance Baker Motley, senior U.S. District judge for the Southern District of New York, the 88th Spingarn Award honoree. Judge Motley received the award during the 94th NAACP National Convention in Miami on July 17, 2003. 2003. Award recipients in the next years were Robert L. Carter, 2004, Oliver W. Hill, 2005, Benjamin S. Carson, Sr., 2006, and John Conyers, Jr., 2007. Photo courtesy of: DuSable Museum of African-American History Reference: Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience Editors: Kwame Anthony Appiah and Henry Louis Gates Jr. Copyright 1999 ISBN 0-465-0071-1
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The African American Registry®, The African American Registry® Copyright 2005, 2006
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