2023
Dr. Tim Tyson
2022
Martin Luther King III
2021
Kerry Kennedy
2020
Winona LaDuke
2019
Tim Wise
2018
Luis Alberto Urrea
2017
Dr. Robert D. Bullard
2016
Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II
2015
Geoffrey Canada
2014
Douglas Blackmon
2013
Julia Alvarez
2012
Bishop Howard Hubbard
2011
Van Jones
2010
Charles Ogletree
2009
Michael Eric Dyson
2008
Bernice Johnson Reagon
2007
Julian Bond
2006
John Lewis
2005
Morris Dees
2004
Calvin O. Butts, III
2003
Joycelyn Elders
2002
Bernice King
2001
Eric H. F. Law
2000
Lani Guinier
1999
Johnetta B. Cole
1998
Cornel West
1997
Jonathan Kozol
1996
Marian Wright Edelman
1995
Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
1994
Elie Wiesel
1993
Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot
1992
Robert Coles
1991
Ruby Dee
1990
Rev. Allan Boesak
1989
Eleanor Holmes Norton
1988
Harry Belafonte