The 2016 John Jay Justice Awards ceremony held on March 3 was a celebration of five individuals who have shown themselves to be “true champions of justice,” and the honorees who were cited for outstanding leadership in the pursuit of justice were lauded with repeated ovations from a packed house in the College’s Gerald W. Lynch Theater.
Before an enthusiastic audience of members of the College community, public officials, notables from entertainment and the arts, and other dignitaries, the Justice Awards were presented to Anthony McGill, principal clarinet with the New York Philharmonic; attorney Bryan Stevenson, founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative; and feminist icon Gloria Steinem, author, activist and founder of Ms. magazine.
To learn more about the honorees, click here.
The Justice Awards ceremony included a roster of presenters as notable as the recipients themselves. Each of the honorees was first saluted with a special video tribute before their respective presenters took the stage. Matthew Van Besien, president of the New York Philharmonic, hailed McGill as someone who is in great demand as a performer throughout the world, yet still finds time to serve as a mentor and role model for youngsters. “How lucky we are to have this special individual as an ambassador,” Van Besien said of McGill before welcoming to the stage actor Alec Baldwin, a member of the Philharmonic’s board, to join in the presentation.
Previous John Jay Medal winners include Elie Wiesel, author, Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate; the late Judith Kaye, former Chief Judge of the State of New York; Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland; B.J. Bernstein, prominent Atlanta attorney; the NYU Brennan Center for Justice; Leymah Gbowee, Liberian activist and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate; the Innocence Project; the Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project; Sunitha Krishnan, founder and President of Prajwala; Marian Wright Edelman, founder and President of the Children’s Defense Fund; Sheriff Thomas J. Dart of Cook County, Illinois; Dr. Hawa Abdi, Somali human rights activist; Harry Belafonte, actor, musician and civil rights activist; and the Rev. Vivian Nixon, Executive Director of the College and Community Fellowship.
The John Jay Justice Awards are made possible through the generosity of Richard J. Tarlow, Kristin Kehrberg, and Anne Beane Rudman, a member of the John Jay College Foundation Board of Trustees.
To learn more about the John Jay Medal for Justice and past recipients, click here.