lincoln.ne.gov
In 2000, LCHR established an annual Human Rights award to recognize outstanding achievements in furthering human relations in the City of Lincoln. In 2003 the award was renamed the Gerald Henderson Human Rights award in order to remember and honor the first director of LCHR and a long-standing civil rights activist. Nominees for this award are judged based on their achievements in improving human rights based on activities implemented, services performed, or programs operated in the City of Lincoln.
Annie and Leroy Stokes were selected to receive the 2008 award, and according to LCHR Commissioner Gene Crump, the Stokes’ represent the spirit of Gerald Henderson’s life and his human rights vision for the City of Lincoln. Henderson Human Rights Award. Having been exposed to racism earlier in her life, Annie Stokes turned that negative experience into a positive force through her work as an advocate for children with special needs, through organizing food collection drives at Lefler Middle School, by initiating a mentorship program for junior high school students who eventually completed high school, graduated from college, and became active members of their community and numerous other activities.
Leroy Stokes has served the Lincoln community by working on various boards and committees including serving as the president of the Lincoln Branch of the NAACP, as president of the Parent Advisory Committee for Lincoln High School, as a member of the Malone Community Center’s Board of Directors, as a focus group member providing input on methods for recruiting people of color for Lincoln Public Schools; to name a few examples.
Together, the Stokes’ spearheaded the naming of Rosa Parks Way, the development and implementation of voter registration programs in Lincoln, and in the raising of funds to award scholarships to over twenty graduating Lincoln high school students. In 1968, then Lincoln Human Rights Officer, Gerald Henderson stated, “There are many hidden problems here. Maybe Lincoln is not as warm a city with few race problems as is thought.” Today, Lincoln is a thriving diverse city, but like any growing city, it still faces many challenges. Annie and Leroy Stokes continue to do their part to help Lincoln face those challenges head on, and for this reason they were selected by the Commission to receive the 2008 Gerald Henderson Human Rights Award.
Previous winners of this award include the late Dan Williams of Citizens Against Racism and Discrimination, Cecilia Olivarez Huerta of the Mexican American Commission, Jose Soto and the Division of Affirmative Action, Equity and Diversity of Southeast Community College, Milo Mumgaard of Nebraska Appleseed Center for Law in the Public Interest, Florine Joseph of the Lincoln Action Program, and Beatty Brasch of the Center for People in Need.
Chief Standing Bear of the Ponca Indian tribe is another Nebraska human rights pioneer who LCHR chose to celebrate by creating an award in his honor. In 1879, Chief Standing Bear challenged decades of US Indian policy when he stood in a federal courthouse in Omaha, Nebraska and demanded to be recognized as a person by the US Government. The Ponca Indians had been forcibly relocated from their beloved Niobrara River Valley to the harsh plains of Oklahoma and their Chief had decided to challenge this human rights violation in court. suit forced the government to grapple head-on with the issue of whether Native Americans, like the recently emancipated Black population, were persons entitled to equal protection under the law. General George Crook, an accomplished “Indian fighter” supported Standing Bear with a harsh indictment of the very policies he had spent his career implementing. Chief Standing Bear eventually won his case and the US government recognized for the first time that “an Indian is a person within the meaning of the law,” and was deserving of equal protection under the law. This is a complete embodiment of the Nebraska state motto: Equality Before the Law, and this is also what LCHR ensures for the people of Lincoln.
LCHR is proud of its continued relationship and partnership with the Nebraska Commission on Indian Affairs and LCHR thanks them for the use of Chief Standing Bear’s image as well as his legacy in its anti-prejudice outreach program with the Lincoln Public School system. In honor of that relationship, the Nebraska Commission on Indian Affairs was presented with the first LCHR Chief Standing Bear award.
The Nebraska Commission on Indian Affairs was established in 1971 and consists of fourteen Commissioners appointed by the Governor. The Commission’s statutory mission is “to do all things which it may determine to enhance the cause of Indian rights and to develop solutions to the problems common to all Nebraska Indians.” The Commission helps assure that Indian communities in Nebraska are afforded the right to equitable opportunities in the areas of housing, employment, education, health care, economic development, and human / civil rights. Judi gaiashkibos is currently the Executive Director for the Commission and is a past recipient of the Gerald Henderson Human rights award.
A highlight of the Fair Housing Conference is the annual Fair Housing Award which is awarded to a person, organization or formalized group who has made significant contributions to providing equal opportunity in the field of housing. Someone whose achievements have given new meaning to 'fair housing'. This may be:
Past Winners