Distinguished Service to Museums In 2013, Cole received the highest citation of the International Civil Rights Center & Museum, the Alston-Jones International Civil and Human Rights Award. Cole has received more than 40 honorary degrees, including those from Williams College and Bates College in 1989, Oberlin College in 1995, Mount Holyoke College in 1998, Mills College in 1999, Howard University and North Carolina A&T State University in 2009, and Gettysburg College in 2017. She received honorary membership in Phi Beta Kappa from Yale in 1996, and has served as a Phi Beta Kappa Senator. In 1995, Cole received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement presented by Awards Council member and Morehouse College President Walter E. Massey. She received a Candace Award from the National Coalition of 100 Black Women in 1988. Quotes References External links 2002 Voices from the Gaps At 80, Johnnetta Cole reflects on her career and the controversial Cosby exhibition 1998 commencement speech, Mount Holyoke College 2009 State-of-the-College Address, Oberlin College Johnnetta Cole: Groundbreaking Scholar & College President. Video produced by Makers: Women Who Make America 1936 births 20th-century American educators 20th-century American women educators African-American museum directors African-American social scientists American people of Senegalese descent American social scientists American women anthropologists Bennett College faculty Delta Sigma Theta members Directors of the National Museum of African Art Fisk University alumni Kingsley-Ndiaye family Living people Northwestern University alumni Oberlin College alumni Presidents of Spelman College University of California, Los Angeles faculty University of Massachusetts Amherst faculty Women heads of universities and colleges Women museum directors