The Liberty Legacy Foundation Award is an annual book award given by the Organization of American Historians

Organization of American Historians

The Organization of American Historians , formerly known as the Mississippi Valley Historical Association, is the largest professional society dedicated to the teaching and study of American history. OAH's members in the U.S...

 (OAH). The award goes to the best book written by a professional historian on the fights for civil rights in the United States anytime from 1776 to the present. Dr. Darlene Clark Hine challenged American historians to research and write on those civil rights episodes

Civil rights movement

The civil rights movement was a worldwide political movement for equality before the law occurring between approximately 1950 and 1980. In many situations it took the form of campaigns of civil resistance aimed at achieving change by nonviolent forms of resistance. In some situations it was...

 taking place in the United States before 1954 in her 2002 OAH presidential speech.. A committee of three OAH members, chosen by the OAH president, make the selection. The winner receives $800.00. In the Award’s first year (2003) a winner and six “Finalists” were named. In 2004 two winners were named. In 2006 one winner and one “Honorable Mention” were named. In 2008 one winner and two “Finalists” were named.

In the table below, the link on the “Author” is to the latest biographical site found. The link on the “Affiliation” is the author’s workplace at the time of the award.

Year	Winner	Affiliation	Title
2003 Winner	J. Mills Thornton III	University of Michigan University of Michigan The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...	Dividing Lines: Municipal Politics and the Struggle for Civil Rights in Montgomery, Birmingham, and Selma
2003 Finalist	Greta De Jong	University of Nevada, Reno University of Nevada, Reno The University of Nevada, Reno , is a teaching and research university established in 1874 and located in Reno, Nevada, USA...	A Different Day: African American Struggles for Justice in Rural Louisiana, 1900-1970
2003 Finalist	Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz is an American academic, educator, feminist activist, and writer.Born in San Antonio, Texas, Dunbar-Ortiz is of partial American Indian background. She spent most of her youth growing up in the rural community of Piedmont, Oklahoma...	independent scholar	Outlaw Woman: A Memoir of the War Years, 1960-1975
2003 Finalist	Barbara Mills	Congress of Racial Equality Congress of Racial Equality The Congress of Racial Equality or CORE was a U.S. civil rights organization that originally played a pivotal role for African-Americans in the Civil Rights Movement... , Baltimore Baltimore Baltimore is the largest independent city in the United States and the largest city and cultural center of the US state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore...	"Got My Mind Set on Freedom" Maryland's Story of Black and White Activism, 1663-2000
2003 Finalist	Jerald E. Podair	Lawrence University Lawrence University Lawrence University is a selective, private liberal arts college with a nationally recognized conservatory of music, in Appleton, Wisconsin. Lawrence University is known for its rigorous academic environment. Founded in 1847, the first classes were held on November 12, 1849...	The Strike that Changed New York: Blacks, Whites, and the Ocean Hill-Brownsville Crisis
2003 Finalist	Mark Robert Schneider	University of Massachusetts Boston University of Massachusetts Boston The University of Massachusetts Boston, also known as UMass Boston, is an urban public research university and the second largest campus in the five-campus University of Massachusetts system. The university is located on on Harbor Point in the City of Boston, Massachusetts, United States...	"We Return Fighting": The Civil Rights Movement in the Jazz Age
2003 Finalist	John D. Skrentny	University of California, San Diego University of California, San Diego The University of California, San Diego, commonly known as UCSD or UC San Diego, is a public research university located in the La Jolla neighborhood of San Diego, California, United States...	The Minority Rights Revolution
2004 Co-Winner	Robert Rodgers Korstad	Duke University Duke University Duke University is a private research university located in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present day town of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco industrialist James B...	Civil Rights Unionism: Tobacco Workers and the Struggle for Democracy in the Mid-Twentieth Century South
2004 Co-Winner	Barbara Ransby	University of Illinois at Chicago University of Illinois at Chicago The University of Illinois at Chicago, or UIC, is a state-funded public research university located in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its campus is in the Near West Side community area, near the Chicago Loop...	Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement: A Radical Democratic Vision
2005 Winner	Nikhil Pal Singh	University of Washington University of Washington University of Washington is a public research university, founded in 1861 in Seattle, Washington, United States. The UW is the largest university in the Northwest and the oldest public university on the West Coast. The university has three campuses, with its largest campus in the University...	Black is a Country: Race and the Unfinished Struggle for Democracy
2006 Winner	Matthew J. Countryman	University of Michigan University of Michigan The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...	Up South: Civil Rights and Black Power in Philadelphia
2006 Honorable Mention	Emilye Crosby	State University of New York, Geneseo	A Little Taste of Freedom: The Black Freedom Struggle in Claiborne County, Mississippi
2007 Winner	Thomas F. Jackson	University of North Carolina Greensboro	From Civil Rights to Human Rights: Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Struggle for Economic Justice
2008 Winner	Michael Honey Michael Honey Michael K. Honey is an American historian, Guggenheim Fellow and Haley Professor of Humanities at the University of Washington Tacoma in the United States, where he teaches African-American, civil rights and labor history...	University of Washington University of Washington University of Washington is a public research university, founded in 1861 in Seattle, Washington, United States. The UW is the largest university in the Northwest and the oldest public university on the West Coast. The university has three campuses, with its largest campus in the University...	Going Down Jericho Road: The Memphis Strike, Martin Luther King's Last Campaign
2008 Finalist	Kent Germany	University of South Carolina University of South Carolina The University of South Carolina is a public, co-educational research university located in Columbia, South Carolina, United States, with 7 surrounding satellite campuses. Its historic campus covers over in downtown Columbia not far from the South Carolina State House...	New Orleans After the Promises: Poverty, Citizenship and the Search for a Great Society
2008 Finalist	Laurie Green	University of Texas, Austin	Battling the Plantation Mentality: Memphis and the Black Freedom Struggle
2009 Winner	Chris Myers Asch	U.S. Public Service Academy	The Senator and the Sharecropper: The Freedom Struggles of James O. Eastland and Fannie Lou Hamer
2010 Winner	Beryl Satter	Rutgers University at Newark Rutgers-Newark Rutgers University in Newark is one of three campuses of Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, the eighth oldest college in the United States and a member of the Association of American Universities...	Family Properties: Race, Real Estate, and the Exploitation of Black Urban America

External links

J. Mills Thornton Last viewed on March 9, 2011.Greta de Jong Last viewed on March 9, 2011.Jerald E. Podair Last viewed on March 9, 2011.John D. Skrentny Last viewed on March 9, 2011.Robert Rodgers Korstad Last viewed on march 9, 2011.About Dr. Barbara Ransby Last viewed on March 9, 2011.Nikhil Pal Singh Last viewed on March 9, 2011.Matthew J. Countryman Last viewed on March 9, 2011.Emilye Crosby Last viewed on March 9, 2011.Thomas F. Jackson Last viewed on March 9, 2011.Michael Honey Last viewed on March 9, 2011.Kent Germany Last viewed on March 10, 2011.Laurie Green Last viewed on march 10, 2011.Chris Myers Asch with the U.S. Public Service Academy Last viewed on March 10, 2011.Beryl Satter Last viewed on March 10, 2011.