| 1997 |
|
Cornell West, educator, author, social commentator |
| 1998 |
|
Kweisi Mfume, former president/CEO of the NAACP |
| 1999 |
|
Rebecca Walker, author |
| 2000 |
|
Helen Zia, journalist |
| 2001 |
|
Ray Suarez, journalist |
| 2002 |
|
Winona LaDuke, activist and leader |
| 2003 |
|
J. Herman Blake, educator |
| 2004 |
|
Paul Kivel, activist and author |
| 2005 |
|
Dennis Banks, activist and author |
| 2006 |
|
Carlos Cortés, author and educator |
| 2007 |
|
Patricia Williams, legal scholar, educator and author |
| 2008 |
|
Ronald Takaki, educator and author |
| 2009 |
|
Keith Boykin, author, journalist and social commentator |
| 2010 |
|
Arun Gandhi, social justice and peace activist |
| 2011 |
|
Yvonne Haddad, scholar and expert in Islam and Muslims |
| 2012 |
|
Michelle Alexander, attorney, author and professor |
| 2013 |
|
Tim Wise, prominent anti-racist activist, social critic and author |
| 2014 |
|
Keith Ellison, Congressman and author |
| 2015 |
|
Peter L. Levine, scholar and author on civic engagement and public service. |
| 2016 |
|
Kathryn J. Edin & H. Luke Shaefer, scholars and authors, and professors |
| 2017 |
|
Kemba Smith, author and criminal justice reform advocate |
| 2018 |
|
Safiya U. Noble, scholar of algorithmic bias and critical information studies |
| 2019 |
|
Jeff Chang, cultural critic, racial justice advocate, and scholar of hip-hop culture |