The Spingarn Medal, for the highest achievement by a black American, is awarded each year by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
-
Benjamin Elijah Mays (born 1895, died 1984)
American clergyman and educator.
- 1982 Spingarn Medal winner
-
Benjamin L. Hooks (born 1925)
American clergyman and civil-rights leader.
- 1986 Spingarn Medal winner
-
Carl Murphy (born 1889, died 1967)
American editor and publisher.
- 1955 Spingarn Medal winner
-
Channing H. Tobias (born 1882, died 1961)
American clergyman, civil-rights leader and diplomat.
- 1948 Spingarn Medal winner
-
Charles Hamilton Houston (born 1895, died 1950)
American lawyer and civil-rights leader.
- 1950 Spingarn Medal winner
-
Clarence M. Mitchell, Jr. (born 1911, died 1984)
American civil-rights leader.
- 1969 Spingarn Medal winner
-
Coleman Young (born 1918)
American politician. First African-American to be elected mayor of Detroit, in 1973.
- 1981 Spingarn Medal winner
-
Colin Luther Powell (born 1937)
American general. First African American to serve as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, 1989-93.
- 1991 Spingarn Medal winner
-
Damon Keith (born 1922)
American lawyer and judge.
- 1974 Spingarn Medal winner
-
L. Douglas Wilder (born 1931)
American politician. The first African-American to be elected governor of a U.S. state (Virginia, 1989).
- 1990 Spingarn Medal winner
-
Edward W. Brooke (born 1919)
American politician. Senator, R-Massachusetts, 1956-69; the first African-American elected to the Senate since Reconstruction.
- 1967 Spingarn Medal winner
-
Edward Kennedy ''Duke'' Ellington (born 1899, died 1974)
American jazz musician.
- 1959 Spingarn Medal winner
- 1959 Spingarn Medal winner
-
Frederick Douglass Patterson (born 1901, died 1988)
American educator who founded the United Negro College Fund.
- 1988 Spingarn Medal winner
-
George Washington Carver (born 1864, died 1943)
American, born a slave, who became a leading agronomist and agricultural chemist.
- 1923 Spingarn Medal winner
-
Gordon Parks (born 1912)
American novelist and film director.
- 1972 Spingarn Medal winner
-
Henry T. ''Harry'' Moore (born 1905, died 1951)
American civil-rights leader.
- 1952 Spingarn Medal winner
-
Henry ''Hank'' Aaron (born 1934)
American professional baseball player; holder of the record for most home runs (755).
- 1975 Spingarn Medal winner
-
Jacob Lawrence (born 1917)
American painter.
- 1970 Spingarn Medal winner
-
John H. Johnson (born 1918)
American magazine publisher; founder of Ebony and Jet.
- 1966 Spingarn Medal winner
-
Kenneth B. Clark (born 1914)
American psychologist.
- 1961 Spingarn Medal winner
-
Langston Hughes (born 1902, died 1967)
American poet.
- 1960 Spingarn Medal winner
-
Leon Howard Sullivan (born 1922)
American clergyman and civil-rights activist.
- 1971 Spingarn Medal winner
-
Martin Luther King, Jr. (born 1929, died 1968)
American clergyman and civil-rights leader. President of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Advocate of nonviolence; assassinated April 4, 1968.
- 1957 Spingarn Medal winner
-
Medgar Wiley Evers (born 1925, died 1963)
American civil-rights leader. Chairman of the NAACP in 1963.
- 1963 Spingarn Medal winner
-
Paul Revere Williams (born 1894, died 1980)
American architect.
- 1953 Spingarn Medal winner
-
Percy L. Julian (born 1899, died 1975)
American chemist.
- 1947 Spingarn Medal winner
-
Percy E. Sutton (born 1920)
American politician.
- 1987 Spingarn Medal winner
-
A. Philip Randolph
American activist for the rights of workers and African Americans.
- 1942 Spingarn Medal winner
-
Ralph J. Bunche (born 1904, died 1971)
American diplomat who played an important role in the founding of the United Nations.
- 1949 Spingarn Medal winner
-
Rayford W. Logan
American historian.
- 1980 Spingarn Medal winner
-
Robert C. Weaver (born 1907, died 1997)
American economist, educator and government official. First African-American cabinet secretary.
- 1962 Spingarn Medal winner
-
Roy Wilkins (born 1901, died 1981)
American civil-rights leader.
- 1964 Spingarn Medal winner
-
Sammy Davis, Jr. (born 1925, died 1990)
American actor and singer.
- 1968 Spingarn Medal winner
-
Theodore K. Lawless (born 1892, died 197)
American dermatologist.
- 1954 Spingarn Medal winner
-
Thomas Bradley (born 1917)
American politician. The first African-American mayor of Los Angeles.
- 1984 Spingarn Medal winner
-
Thurgood Marshall (born 1908, died 1993)
Celebrated civil-rights lawyer who became the first African-American Supreme Court justice.
- 1946 Spingarn Medal winner
-
Walter F. White (born 1893, died 1955)
American civil-rights leader.
- 1937 Spingarn Medal winner
-
Wilson C. Riles (born 1917)
American educator and government official.
- 1973 Spingarn Medal winner
-
Alvin Ailey (born 1931, died 1989)
American choreographer.
- 1976 Spingarn Medal winner
-
Alex Haley (born 1921, died 1992)
American journalist and author. Best known for Roots, a historical novel recounting an ancestor's sale into slavery and following the family fortunes up to modern times.
- 1977 Spingarn Medal winner
-
Bill Cosby (born 1937)
American actor and comedian.
- 1985 Spingarn Medal winner
-
Andrew Young (born 1932)
American clergyman, civil-rights leader, government official, and diplomat.
- 1978 Spingarn Medal winner
-
Paul Robeson (born 1898, died 1976)
American singer, actor and social activist.
- 1945 Spingarn Medal winner
-
Richard Wright (born 1908, died 1960)
American novelist and essayist. Best known for his novel Native Son.
- 1941 Spingarn Medal winner
-
Jesse Jackson (born 1941)
American clergyman and civil-rights leader. Ran for President in 1984 and 1988.
- 1989 Spingarn Medal winner
-
Ernest E. Just
First recipient of the NAACP's Spingarn Medal.
- 1915 Spingarn Medal winner
-
Charles Young
- 1916 Spingarn Medal winner
-
Harry Thacker Burleigh (born 1866, died 1949)
American singer and composer. Known for his arrangements of Negro spirituals.
- 1917 Spingarn Medal winner
-
William S. Braithwaite
- 1918 Spingarn Medal winner
-
Archibald H. Grimké
- 1919 Spingarn Medal winner
-
William Edward Burghardt ''W.E.B.'' Du Bois (born 1868, died 1963)
American sociologist and civil-rights activist. Co-founder of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
- 1920 Spingarn Medal winner
-
Charles S. Gilpin (born 1878, died 1930)
American actor.
- 1921 Spingarn Medal winner
-
Roland Hayes (born 1887, died 1976)
American opera singer.
- 1924 Spingarn Medal winner
-
James Weldon Johnson (born 1871, died 1938)
American lawyer, songwriter, diplomat, educator, novelist and poet.
- 1925 Spingarn Medal winner
-
Carter G. Woodson (born 1875, died 1950)
American historian. A pioneer in the field of black studies.
- 1926 Spingarn Medal winner
-
Anthony Overton
- 1927 Spingarn Medal winner
-
Charles W. Chesnutt (born 1858, died 1932)
American short-story writer.
- 1928 Spingarn Medal winner
-
Mordecai W. Johnson
- 1929 Spingarn Medal winner
-
Henry A. Hunt
- 1930 Spingarn Medal winner
-
Richard B. Harrison
- 1931 Spingarn Medal winner
-
Robert Russa Moton
American educator. President of Tuskegee Institute, 1915-35.
- 1932 Spingarn Medal winner
-
Max Yergan
- 1933 Spingarn Medal winner
-
William T.B. Williams
- 1934 Spingarn Medal winner
-
John Hope (born 1868, died 1936)
American educator and civil-rights activist. President of Atlanta University, the first to offer graduate programs to blacks, 1929-36.
- 1936 Spingarn Medal winner
-
Louis T. Wright
- 1940 Spingarn Medal winner
-
William H. Hastie
- 1943 Spingarn Medal winner
-
Charles Richard Drew (born 1904, died 1950)
American physician and surgeon who developed blood-storage technology. Resigned his position with the armed forces in 1942, to protest their policy of storing blood from blacks and whites separately.
- 1944 Spingarn Medal winner
-
John Hope Franklin (born 1915)
American historian and educator known for his many books on African-American history.
- 1995 Spingarn Medal winner
-
A. Leon Higginbotham
American jurist.
- 1996 Spingarn Medal winner
-
Carl T. Rowan (born 1925, died 2000)
American newspaper columnist.
- 1997 Spingarn Medal winner
