Honorees & Host

HONOREES

Dr. Cornel West

Philosopher & Activist

The Bayard Rustin Award for Social Justice

Cornel West is a prominent and provocative democratic intellectual. He is the Class of 1943 University Professor at Princeton University. He graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard in three years and obtained his M.A. and Ph.D. in Philosophy at Princeton. He has taught at Union Theological Seminary, Yale, Harvard and the University of Paris. He has written 19 books and edited 13 books.

He is best known for his classic Race Matters, Democracy Matters, and his new memoir, Brother West: Living and Loving Out Loud. He appears frequently on the Bill Maher Show, Colbert Report, CNN and C-Span as well as on his dear Brother, Tavis Smiley’s PBS TV Show. He can be heard weekly on Tavis Smiley’s NPI radio program. The Smiley and West radio show begins October 1, 2010. He made his film debut in the Matrix – and was the commentator (with Ken Wilbur) on the official trilogy released in 2004.

He also has appeared in over 25 documentaries and films including Examined Life, Call & Response, Sidewalk and Stand. Last, he has made three spoken word albums including Never Forget, collaborating with Prince, Jill Scott, Andre 3000, Talib Kweli, KRS-One and the late Gerald Levert. His recent spoken word interludes were featured on Terence Blanchard’s Choices (which won the Grand Prix in France for the best Jazz Album of the year of 2009), The Cornel West Theory’s Second Rome and the Raheem DeVaughn’s Love & War: Masterpeace. In short, Cornel West has a passion to communicate to a vast variety of publics in order to keep alive the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. – a legacy of telling the truth and bearing witness to love and justice.

Rosario Dawson

Actress & Activist

The Frida Kahlo Award for Innovative Creativity

Rosario Dawson brings a distinctive voice to her work as an actress. Her life’s journey from the Lower East Side of Manhattan, a place where our organization was founded, along with East Harlem, has been an inspiration to our members. As we continue to seek to honor people who truly resonate with our members – we believe that her craft, her choices, and her life’s arc are worth honoring.

Rosario Dawson has garnered praise for her numerous leading roles with today’s hottest film actors and directors, making her one of Hollywood’s most sought after leading ladies. At the age of 14, Dawson debuted in the critically acclaimed KIDS and went on to gain accolades in roles such as ‘Mimi Marquez’ in the film RENT. She was honored in 2007 at the esteemed ShoWest where she received the award for “Supporting Actress of the Year.” Dawson was recently awarded the “Best Actress in a Motion Picture” Award at the 2009 NAACP Image Awards for her performance in SEVEN POUNDS and the “Half-Life” Award at the 2008 Cine Vegas International Film Festival.

Dawson was recently seen in the Fox action thriller UNSTOPPABLE alongside Denzel Washington and Chris Pine. The film was #1 at the box office during its opening weekend, and has earned well over $100 million dollars. This summer Ms. Dawson will be seen in the romantic comedy ZOOKEEPER, and will star opposite Kevin James, Sylvester Stallone, Adam Sandler and Jon Favreau.

Among Ms. Dawson’s many credits are Spike Lee’s HE GOT GAME opposite Denzel Washington; LIGHT IT UP, opposite Forrest Whitaker and Vanessa Williams; THE 25th HOUR, opposite Edward Norton and Philip Seymour Hoffman; MEN IN BLACK 2 with Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones and THE ADVENTURES OF PLUTO NASH, starring opposite Eddie Murphy. She will also appear in Ed Burn’s next film ASH WEDNESDAY, along with Ed Burns and Elijah Wood.

Notably, we have used four of her films as teaching tools with our members: Kids, Rent, He Got Game and Descent. Most specifically, her profound work in Descent (compared to Amiri Baraka’s “The Dutchman”) led to a great deal of conversations with our members. We also recognize her for her long and deep support of our colleague institutions, The Lower East Side Girls Club. She has also been a supporter of Doctors Without Borders; Amnesty International and many other NGOs.

Dawson currently resides in Los Angeles.

Hon. David N. Dinkins

The 106th Mayor of the City of New York

The Ella Baker & César Chávez Award for Positive Community Development

David N. Dinkins is Professor in the Practice of Public Affairs at the Columbia University School of International & Public Affairs (SIPA), serves on its Advisory Board, and hosts its Annual Dinkins Leadership & Public Policy Forum. In 2003, the David N. Dinkins Professorship in the Practice of Urban & Public Affairs was established at Columbia University.

The 106th Mayor of the City of New York, Mr. Dinkins began his career in public service in 1966 in the New York State Assembly. He was president of the New York City Board of Elections, then City Clerk before his elections as President of the Borough of Manhattan in 1985 and Mayor of the City of New York in 1989.

Mayor Dinkins instituted “Safe Streets, Safe City: Cops and Kids,” the model criminal justice plan for reducing crime and expanding opportunities for the children of New York City, and established the Beacon schools.

Mr. Dinkins is a founding member of the Black & Puerto Rican Legislative Caucus of New York State, the Council of Black Elected Democrats of New York State, and One Hundred Black Men. He was vice president of the United States Conference of Mayors, and is a Member-at-Large of the Black Leadership Forum.

He serves on the board of several non-profit and charitable organizations, many of which assist children and young people — Association to Benefit Children; Children’s Health Fund; Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund; Posse Foundation; Coalition for the Homeless, and the United States Tennis Association.

He is chairman emeritus of the National Black Leadership Commission on AIDS and the Constituency for Africa (CFA), and serves on the steering committee of the Association for a Better New York. He serves on the board of New York City Global Partners and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He is an Honorary Life Trustee of the Community Service Society of New York, an Honorary Trustee of the Friends of Harlem Hospital and a Lifetime Member of the NAACP.

Mr. Dinkins graduated with honors from Howard University with a B.S. in mathematics in 1950, and received an LL.B. from Brooklyn Law School in 1956. He served in the United States Marine Corps during WWII and maintained a private law practice before entering public service.

Born in Trenton, New Jersey, on July 10, 1927, Mr. Dinkins resides in New York City with his wife, Joyce Burrows Dinkins. They have two children and two grandchildren.

HOST

Soledad O’Brien

CNN Anchor & Special Correspondent

Soledad O’Brien is an anchor and special correspondent for CNN/U.S. Since joining the network in 2003, O’Brien has reported breaking news from around the globe and has produced award-winning, record-breaking and critically acclaimed documentaries on the most important stories facing the world today. She also covers political news as part of CNN’s “Best Political Team on Television.”

O’Brien’s most recent documentaries include Almighty Debt, a Black in America special that explores the role of the black church in helping African Americans survive the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression; Rescued, a look at Haiti’s remarkable children before, during and after the devastating earthquake; and Gary and Tony Have a Baby, the story of two gay men and their struggle to have a baby that has a biological and legal connection to both of them. In 2009, Soledad reported for Latino in America, a wide-ranging look at Latinos living in this country; how they’re reshaping America and how America is reshaping them. Prior, O’Brien reported for Black in America 2, a four-hour documentary focusing on successful community leaders who are improving the lives of African-Americans. O’Brien’s reporting for Black in America in 2008 revealed the state of Black America 40 years after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. She has also reported for the CNN documentary Words That Changed a Nation, featuring a never-before-seen look at Dr. King’s private writings and notes, and investigated his assassination in Eyewitness to Murder: The King Assassination. Her Children of the Storm project and One Crime at a Time documentary demonstrate O’Brien’s continued commitment to covering stories out of New Orleans.

O’Brien joined CNN as the co-anchor of the network’s flagship morning program, American Morning, and distinguished herself by reporting from the scene on the transformational stories that broke on her watch. For CNN’s Katrina coverage, O’Brien’s reports on the storm’s impact included an in-depth interview with former FEMA chief Michael Brown. She also covered the London terrorism attacks in July 2005, and in December 2004, she was among a handful of CNN anchors sent to Thailand to cover the disaster and aftermath of the tsunami.

In 2010, she released her critically-acclaimed memoir The Next Big Story: My Journey through the Land of Possibilities, which chronicles her biggest reporting moments and how her upbringing and background have influenced these experiences. That same year, the National Association of Black Journalists named O’Brien the Journalist of the Year and Edward R Murrow Awards lauded her with the RTDNA/UNITY award for Latino in America. In 2009, she received the 2009 Medallion of Excellence for Leadership and Community Service Award from the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute. In 2008, she was the first recipient of the Soledad O’Brien Freedom’s Voice Award from the Morehouse School of Medicine for being a catalyst for social change. Also in 2008, O’Brien was the first recipient of The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Goodermote Humanitarian Award for her efforts while reporting on the devastating effects of Hurricane Katrina and the Southeast Asia tsunami. O’Brien was part of the coverage teams that earned CNN a George Foster Peabody award for its Katrina coverage and an Alfred I. duPont Award for its coverage of the tsunami. Her numerous other awards include a Gracie Allen Award in 2007 for her reporting from Cyprus on the Israeli-Hezbollah conflict as well as her reports from the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina. The NAACP honored her with its President’s Award in 2007 for her humanitarian efforts and journalistic excellence.

O’Brien came to CNN from NBC News where she anchored the network’s Weekend Today since July 1999. Prior, O’Brien anchored MSNBC’s award-winning technology program The Site. O’Brien joined NBC News in 1991 and was based in New York as a field producer for Nightly News and TODAY. Before her time at NBC, she served three years as a local reporter and bureau chief for the NBC affiliate KRON in San Francisco. She began her career as an associate producer and news writer at the then-NBC affiliate WBZ-TV in Boston.

Soledad O’Brien is a graduate of Harvard University and currently lives with her husband and four children in Manhattan.