| 2024 | Vanita Gupta |
| 2023 | Lewis S. Wiener |
| 2022 | John A. Freedman |
| 2021 | Neal Katyal |
| 2019 | The Honorable Eleanor Holmes Norton |
| 2018 | The Honorable Deval Patrick |
| 2017 | Former Attorney General Eric Holder, Jr. Speaker: Congressman John Lewis |
| 2016 | Roderic V.O. Boggs |
| 2015 | Theodore Howard John Relman |
| 2014 | James J. Sandman Nkechi Taifa |
| 2013 | Judge John Ferren Judge Ricardo Urbina |
| 2012 | Thomas Brunner Avis Buchanan Joseph Sellers |
| 2011 | Kim Keenan George Ruttinger |
| 2010 | Congressman John Conyers John C. Keeney |
| 2009 | Congressman John Lewis Benjamin F. Wilson Speaker: Attorney General Eric Holder, Jr. |
| 2008 – 40th Anniversary | David J. Cynamon Leslie M. Turner |
| 2007 | Anastasia D. Kelly Thomas S. Williamson, Jr. |
| 2006 | Marc L. Fleischaker Roger Wilkins |
| 2005 | Judge Nathaniel R. Jones Roger E. Warin |
| 2004 | Stuart J. Land John A. Payton, Jr. |
| 2003 | Patricia M. Wald |
| 2002 | Janet Reno Dick Thornburgh |
| 2001 | David & Florence Isbell |
| 2000 | Peter Edelman Rev. John O. Peterson Speaker: Mayor Anthony Williams |
| 1999 | Drew S. Days Jane Lang |
| 1998 | No award presented |
| 1997 | Judge Charles Richey Speaker: First Lady Hillary Clinton |
| 1996 | Rev. James Macdonell William R. Tisdale |
| 1995 | Judge Aubrey A. Robinson |
| 1994 | Robert H. Kapp |
| 1993 | John E. Nolan, Jr. Vincent E. Reed |
| 1992 | Pedro Avilés Stephen Pollak Iris J. Toyer |
| 1991 | Roscoe N. Nix Joseph L. Rauh, Jr. |
| 1990 | Judge William B. Bryant Judge Louis F. Oberdorfer |
| 1989 | Robert L. Wald |
| 1988 | Distinguished Service Award: Judge Spottswood W. Robinson John W. Douglas |
| 1987 | Distinguished Service Award: Wiley A. Branton, Sr. Albert E. Arent |
