Annual Civil Rights Conference

Civil Rights Conference 2024 (CRC2024) 

Wednesday, May 1, 2024 

Nebraska Innovation Campus

2021 Transformation Dr.
Lincoln, NE 68508

Registration Coming Soon

 

Civil Rights Conference Awards

Gerald Henderson Human Rights Award

2023 Winner — Kevin Abourezk

Kevin Abourezk is an award-winning journalist who spent 18 years as a reporter and editor for the Lincoln Journal Star, where he wrote thousands of stories and produced numerous news videos. He is the winner of the Associated Press’s Best Enterprise Story Award in 2006 and the prestigious Casey Medal for Meritorious Journalism from the Casey Journalism Center on Children and Families for his reporting on the impact of alcohol sales in Whiteclay, Nebraska to residents of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota.

A member of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe, Kevin Abourezk has spent his career documenting the lives, accomplishments and tragedies of Native American people. In 2017 he joined Indianz.com, a Native American news website owned and operated by the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska. He hosts a bi-weekly podcast for Indianz.com called “Indian Times” that focuses on Native American news. He holds a bachelor of arts degree in English from the University of South Dakota and a master of arts degree in Professional Journalism from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Kevin Abourezk’s service as a Human Rights Commissioner for the City of Lincoln was a beacon of light and hope in the midst of the difficult, yet important work of finding whether or not there was reasonable cause to determine unlawful discrimination occurred within the City of Lincoln in response to community members’ complaints of discrimination filed with the Lincoln Commission on Human Rights. His level of analysis, his attention to all relevant facts and details, as well his neutral and insightful perspective provided the community confidence that complaints of discrimination were investigated and adjudicated fairly and equitably. Moreover, Kevin Abourezk has been a steadfast advocate for the Indigenous community in Lincoln and throughout the area, including board service of the Indian Center, volunteering to provide education surrounding Indigenous justice to the Mayor’s Multicultural Advisory Committee, leading the Niskíthe Prayer Camp fight to maintain access and ability to use sacred ceremonial site in Lincoln, and so much more.


Past Winners

  • 2022 No Award
  • 2021 No Award
  • 2020 Dr. Eric A. Evans
  • 2019 Dr. M. Dewayne Mays
  • 2018 Edward D. Wimes
  • 2017 Olga Kanne
  • 2016 Thomas Christie
  • 2015 Wendy Francis
  • 2014 Amir A. Azimi
  • 2013 Kit Boesch
  • 2012 Linda Willard
  • 2011 Larry Williams
  • 2010 Pastor Janet Goodman-Banks
  • 2009 No Award
  • 2008 Annie & Leroy Stokes
  • 2007 Beatty Brasch
  • 2006 Florine Joseph
  • 2005 Judi M. gaiashkibos
  • 2004 Nebraska Appleseed Center for Law in the Public Interest, Inc., Director Milo Mumgaard
  • 2003 Jose Soto & The Division of Affirmative Action, Equity and Diversity of Southeast Community College
  • 2002 No Award
  • 2001 Cecilia Olivarez-Huerta
  • 2000 Dan Williams