Emory University Awards Six With James Weldon Johnson Medals

On November 4, Emory University’s James Weldon Johnson Institute will award the Johnson Medal to six individuals at an award ceremony at the Carter Center in Atlanta. The award is presented to individuals who have made significant contributions to humankind in the tradition of James Weldon Johnson.

The six medalists are Alice Walker for literature, Gloria Steinem for journalism, as well as John Lewis and Myrlie Evers Williams for civil rights. Atlanta mayor Shirley Franklin and E. Neville Isdell, former CEO of Coca-Cola, will be honored for their humanitarianism.

An educator, lawyer, novelist, poet, songwriter, diplomat, musician, and civil rights leader, James Weldon Johnson (1871-1938) was a true Renaissance man and one of the great black intellectuals of the early twentieth century.

Copyright © 2009. The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education. All rights reserved.