The Liberty Legacy Foundation Award is an annual book award given by the Organization of American Historians (OAH). The award goes to the best book written by a professional historian on the fights for civil rights in the United States anytime from 1776 to the present.[1] Dr. Darlene Clark Hine[2] challenged American historians to research and write on those civil rights episodes taking place in the United States before 1954 in her 2002 OAH presidential speech.[3] A committee of three OAH members, chosen by the OAH president, make the selection.[4] The winner receives $800.00. In the Award’s first year (2003) a winner and six “Finalists” were named. In 2004, two winners were named. In 2006, one winner and one “Honorable Mention” were named. In 2008, one winner and two “Finalists” were named.[5]
In the table below, the link on the “Author” is to the latest biographical site found. The link on the “Affiliation” is the author’s workplace at the time of the award.
| Year | Winner | Affiliation | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2003
Winner |
J. Mills Thornton IIIbio | University of Michigan | Dividing Lines: Municipal Politics and the Struggle for Civil Rights in Montgomery, Birmingham, and Selma |
| 2003
Finalist |
Greta De Jongbio | University of Nevada, Reno | A Different Day: African American Struggles for Justice in Rural Louisiana, 1900-1970 |
| 2003
Finalist |
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz | independent scholar | Outlaw Woman: A Memoir of the War Years, 1960-1975 |
| 2003
Finalist |
Barbara Mills | Congress of Racial Equality, Baltimore | "Got My Mind Set on Freedom" Maryland's Story of Black and White Activism, 1663-2000 |
| 2003
Finalist |
Jerald E. Podairbio | Lawrence University | The Strike that Changed New York: Blacks, Whites, and the Ocean Hill-Brownsville Crisis |
| 2003
Finalist |
Mark Robert Schneider | University of Massachusetts Boston | "We Return Fighting": The Civil Rights Movement in the Jazz Age |
| 2003
Finalist |
John D. Skrentnybio | University of California, San Diego | The Minority Rights Revolution |
| 2004
Co-Winner |
Robert Rodgers Korstadbio | Duke University | Civil Rights Unionism: Tobacco Workers and the Struggle for Democracy in the Mid-Twentieth Century South |
| 2004
Co-Winner |
Barbara Ransbybio | University of Illinois at Chicago | Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement: A Radical Democratic Vision |
| 2005
Winner |
Nikhil Pal Singhbio | University of Washington | Black is a Country: Race and the Unfinished Struggle for Democracy |
| 2006
Winner |
Matthew J. Countrymanbio | University of Michigan | Up South: Civil Rights and Black Power in Philadelphia |
| 2006
Honorable Mention |
Emilye Crosbybio | State University of New York, Geneseo | A Little Taste of Freedom: The Black Freedom Struggle in Claiborne County, Mississippi |
| 2007
Winner |
Thomas F. Jacksonbio | University of North Carolina Greensboro | From Civil Rights to Human Rights: Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Struggle for Economic Justice |
| 2008
Winner |
Michael Honeybio | University of Washington | Going Down Jericho Road: The Memphis Strike, Martin Luther King's Last Campaign |
| 2008
Finalist |
Kent Germanybio | University of South Carolina | New Orleans After the Promises: Poverty, Citizenship and the Search for a Great Society |
| 2008
Finalist |
Laurie Greenbio | University of Texas, Austin | Battling the Plantation Mentality: Memphis and the Black Freedom Struggle |
| 2009
Winner |
Chris Myers Aschbio | U.S. Public Service Academy | The Senator and the Sharecropper: The Freedom Struggles of James O. Eastland and Fannie Lou Hamer |
| 2010
Winner |
Beryl Satterbio | Rutgers University at Newark | Family Properties: Race, Real Estate, and the Exploitation of Black Urban America |