2005 Hubert H. Humphrey Civil Rights Award Dinner

Julian Bond, Chairman of the NAACP; Ginny Thornburgh, director of the Religion and Disability Program of the National Organization on Disability; and Senator Tom Daschle were the honorees at the 2005 Hubert H. Humphrey Civil Rights Award Dinner, held on May 4, 2005 in Washington, D.C.

“This year’s honorees have made extraordinary contributions to the advancement of civil rights,” said Leadership Conference on Civil Rights Executive Director Wade Henderson. “Each has helped our nation make great and lasting strides on our journey toward equality. It is particularly fitting that they receive the Humphrey Award, which is the civil rights community’s highest honor.”

More About the 2005 Dinner

• Civil Rights Coalition Announces Recipients of 2005 Hubert H. Humphrey Award – Press Release


• Leadership Conference on Civil Rights to Honor Julian Bond, Ginny Thornburgh & Senator Tom Daschle – Press Release


• Leadership Conference on Civil Rights Honors Hubert H. Humphrey Civil Rights Awardees for 2005 – Civil Rights Monitor Fall/Winter 2005

Julian Bond

For more than 40 years, Julian Bond has been in the front ranks of the fight for civil rights. As a college student, he led peaceful protests that culminated in the integration of movie theaters, lunch counters and public parks in Atlanta. He was a founder of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), serving as its communications director.

In 1965, Mr. Bond was elected to the Georgia House of Representatives but was prevented from taking his seat because of his opposition to the Vietnam War. He was seated only after a unanimous decision by the U.S. Supreme Court. Elected Chairman of the NAACP in 1998, he has been a leader of the civil rights coalition.

A Distinguished Professor at American University, Julian Bond has been awarded 21 honorary degrees. The civil rights community is proud to honor him for a lifetime of dedication and service to the cause of civil rights. More about Julian Bond

Julian Bond’s Acceptance Speech

Ginny Thornburgh

Ginny Thornburgh has been a relentless champion of civil rights and equal opportunity for people with disabilities. She founded and for 15 years has directed the Religion and Disability Program of the National Organization on Disability. She works with more than 2,100 congregations from every faith, as well as seminaries and national religious groups, to eliminate the barriers to full and active religious participation by people with disabilities.

Ginny and her husband, former U.S. Attorney General Richard Thornburgh, are the parents of a son with developmental disabilities who now lives and works in Pittsburgh. She was instrumental in passing one of the great civil rights laws of all time, the Americans with Disabilities Act, in 1990.

We are proud to honor this dynamic woman who has lifted the spirits and expanded the opportunities of millions of Americans. More about Ginny Thornburgh

Senator Tom Daschle

For 26 years in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, Tom Daschle was a strong and steady voice for civil rights and social justice. Representing the people of South Dakota, where his own party was in the minority, and serving as the leader of his party in a closely divided Senate, he displayed political courage, a deep commitment to civil rights, unflagging courtesy and an extraordinary capacity for hard work.

Senator Daschle built coalitions in support of affirmative action, election reform, education programs, immigrants’ rights, expanded health care, and national action in favor of anti-hate crime legislation and in opposition to extreme and unqualified nominees for the federal courts.

A veteran of the U.S. Air Force, Senator Tom Daschle has served his country long and well. With gratitude and pride, the civil rights coalition honors a prairie populist in the tradition of Hubert Humphrey. More about Sen. Tom Daschle

Video Highlights from the Dinner