Meet 3 Winners of the 2007 HCR Awards

Nominate a Champion for the 2008 Awards

Each year NEA recognizes individuals who are champions of human and civil rights. Take a look at three winners of the 2007 HCR awards. We hope they will inspire you to nominate someone whose work and life promote human and civil rights. 

César Chávez Acción y Compromiso Human and Civil Rights Award

This award is given to a person whose work dignifies workers and their jobs and gives them hope for a better life and uses grassroots organizing to achieve improvements in working conditions.

Barbara Kerr, past president of California Teachers Association (CTA) and a member from Riverside, California, won this award for her work and leadership in improving the status of labor and the lives of workers. She helped forged close ties between CTA and other unions in California and together they have won many battles. 56K | Broadband Time: 3:36 min

H. Councill Trenholm Memorial Award (Non-Black)

This award is given to a person whose work goes beyond the call of duty to free the education profession from inequities based on race or ethnicity.

Braulio Alonso, the first Hispanic president of NEA (1967-1968), and a retired member of the Tampa, Florida, organization, won this award for his leadership in a time of crisis, work with integration, and help in completing the merger between NEA and the American Teachers Association, the Black teachers association. 56K | Broadband Time: 3:09 min

SuAnne Big Crow Memorial Award

This award is given to one or more K-12 students under the age of 20, whose achievements in school have helped enhance students' sense of worth and dignity.

Drama students at Hattiesburg High School  received this award for creating a drama that captured the gut-wrenching trauma that Hurricane Katrina victims felt and the nation witnessed. Led by theatre arts and debate teacher and long-time NEA member from Mississippi, Michael Marks, these students produced "Katrina Project: Hell and High Water." 56K | Broadband  Time: 3:06 min

You, Too, Can Contribute to This Annual Tradition

We invite you to nominate an exemplary individual or individuals, organization, or affiliate to recognize through the 2008 NEA Human and Civil Rights Awards. Winners will be honored at a gala dinner in the Grand Ballroom of the Washington Convention Center, in Washington D.C., on July 2, 2008.

Each year, nominations must be postmarked by December 1.

For more information, see the guidelines for the 15 HCR award categories. If you have further questions, please contact Sabrina Williams at (202) 822-7709.