Simeon Booker Awards for Courage to Be Presented Tonight

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – The Simeon Booker Award for Courage program, part of Ohio Nonviolence Week, will be held at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 6 in Youngstown State University’s Chestnut Room in Kilcawley Center.

Booker was the first Black reporter for the Washington Post, later moving to Jet Magazine, and focused his reporting on covering Civil Rights issues, including the murder of Emmett Till.

As Booker constantly risked his life for Civil Rights Movement coverage, the award celebrates individuals who exhibit courage and determination, in his memory.

The local recipient of the award is Dr. Virginia “Dee” Banks. Banks, an infectious disease specialist in Youngstown, who spent the past couple years educating the area on COVID-19 and the imbalance of access and delivery of quality healthcare.

The national recipient is Anthony Ray Hinton, who spent 30 years on death row in a prison in Alabama for a crime he did not commit. Only after Bryan Stevenson, creator and executive director of Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Ala., took his case to the Supreme Court was Hinton released from prison.

The program will be free, preceded by a reception at 5:30 p.m. The entry fee for the reception will be $25.

Pictured: The late Simeon Booker.

Published by The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.