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The Alfred McKenzie Award was established in 1994 to recognize Committee clients whose dedication and courage have produced civil rights victories of particular significance. It takes its name from a man whose efforts as a Committee plaintiff helped to change an institution.

During World War II, Alfred McKenzie left his entry-level position in the Government Printing Office (GPO) to join the Army Air Corps where he served with distinction as one of the famed Tuskegee Airmen. When he returned to the GPO in 1946, he was assigned to the same low-level position he had held before his military service. He then began a career-long struggle to win equal treatment for himself and his fellow African-American GPO employees.

In 1972, represented by Committee staff and the firm of Hogan & Hartson, Mr. McKenzie initiated a class action lawsuit to challenge racial discrimination against African-American pressmen at the GPO. Fifteen years later, his determination led to a landmark victory that secured a record $2.4 million payment to hundreds of African-American workers and, even more important, a fundamental restructuring of personnel policies that opened the door of equal opportunity to countless minority workers.

The Leadership Conference on Civil Rights

It is most fitting that the Committee present the Alfred McKenzie Award to The Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, the organization that led the successful campaign to enact the Civil Rights Act of 1972. Mr. McKenzie and the class of African-American GPO employees he led relied on that Act to strike down a pattern and practice of racial discrimination that had persisted for generations. The Leadership Conference’s role in that instance was but one part in the organization’s unprecedented effort over a half-century of leading the fight for equal justice in our country.

Founded in 1950 by three giants of the civil rights movement — A. Philip Randolph, founder of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters; Roy Wilkins, Executive Secretary of the NAACP; and Arnold Aronson, of the National Jewish Community Relations Advisory Council — the Leadership Conference quickly established itself as the largest and most effective coalition of civil rights organizations in the country. Its historic accomplishments include decisive advocacy for every major piece of civil rights legislation in the modern era. It has thus played an indispensable role in the struggle for equal opportunity in our society.

Many of the laws so ably supported by the Leadership Conference, including the Civil Rights Acts of 1964, 1972 and 1991, the Fair Housing Acts of 1968 and 1988, and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, have been the primary tools used by the Committee in its civil rights representation over the past 38 years. We thus know at first hand the significance of this organization’s extraordinary work. In addition, the Committee has had the good fortune to work closely with the Leadership Conference in recent months on a joint campaign to amend the D.C. Home Rule Charter to assure all children in the District of Columbia the right to a high-quality public education.

After more than fifty years of exceptional effort, the work of the Leadership Conference remains as important as ever. With the gifted leadership provided by a staff of unsurpassed skill, led by Wade Henderson, it is superbly equipped to lead the battles that lie ahead. The Committee is delighted to present this organization with the Alfred McKenzie Award.