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The Elliott-Black Award

The Elliott-Black Award was established in 1971 to honor two long-term and highly esteemed Leaders of the New York Society for Ethical Culture, the late John Lovejoy Elliott and Algernon D. Black.  It is given by The American Ethical Union as a recogni¬tion and tribute to an individual or organization in the larger community who has made a significant ethical contribution to society at personal risk and hardship.  

Algernon D. Black (1900-1993) received his B.A. Magna cum Laude from Harvard in 1923.  Among his achievement were lifelong activism in race relations and housing discrimination.  He served as Ethics Teacher and Leader of the New York Society for Ethical Culture and he was also the founder of Work Camp for Democracy 1939, Work Camps for American 1940-1941, and the Encampment for Citizenship in 1946.

John Lovejoy Elliott (1868-1942) in addition to his leadership role at the New York Society for Ethical Culture is best known for his work on New York's West Side.  He worked with boys' clubs until he had established a center for clubs and inter-clubs activities and families.  Hudson Guild Neighborhood House (incorporated in 1896) was the first result of his social work.  He enabled people of the neighborhood to organize and empower themselves, established the League of Mothers' Club among the settlements (1913) and founded the School for Printers' Apprentices (1912).  One of his last acts, at the age of 70, was to rescue two Leaders of the Vienna Ethical Society who had been imprisoned under the Nazi terror.  He traveled to Germany, met the Nazi authorities and obtained the release of his associates.
 
Elliott-Black Awardees

1972 Aubrey M. Daniels III, politician? 
1973 Peter H. Bridge and Earl Caldwell, journalists
1974 Henry Durham, whistleblower
1975 Jerrold terHorst, Politician
1976 Joan Claybrook, Social Justice advocate
1977 Dr. Luis Reque, Human Rights Activitst
1978 Father Bruce Ritter, Advocate for homeless teenagers 
1979 Karen Silkwood (posthumously,) nuclear safety whistleblower 
1980 Michael Pertschuk, businesses regulation for consumer rights
1981 Robert C. Eckhardt, defender of the United States Constitution 
1982 Eugene Babb and Stephen Joseph, MD, healthcare 
1983 Joann Bell, separation of church and state 
1984 Professor Robert E. White, Human Rights 
1985 Mary Sinclair consumer health rights 
1986 Dr. Helen Caldicott, Physicians for Social and WAND 
1987 Dr. Matthew Ies Spetter, Ethical Culture Leader, World War II resistance fighter 
1988 Martha Honey and Tony Avirgan, U.S. journalists
1989 Ginny Durrin, filmmaker
1991 Derrick A. Bell, Academic and Educator 
1993 Dr. Margot O'Toole, Scientist
1995 Dr. M. Joycelyn Elders
1997 Judge Abner J. Mikva
1999 Daryl Davis
2000 The Innocence Project
2001 John M. Swomley
2003 Sam Daley-Harris
2005 Franklin Kameny, Ph.D.
2006 Kathy Kelly
2007 Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) 
2008 New Jerseyans for Alternatives to Death Penalty (NJADP
2009 James J. Yee