Legacy Honorees

Part of Reckoning with Academy History

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The Legacy Recognition Program recognizes individuals who were not members of the Academy and whose accomplishments were overlooked or undervalued due to their race, ethnicity, gender, or sexual orientation. 

The initiative, launched in 2023, is rooted in the values of the Academy’s Anti-Racism Committee and its statement establishing a responsibility to “seek to undo the wrongs and to move us forward in the search for racial justice, advancing the ongoing project of perfecting our Union.”

The first Legacy Recognition honorees were announced in September 2024. Additional honorees will be nominated and honored in the years ahead.  Academy members may access the 2025 Legacy Recognition Program nomination form.

 

Legacy Honorees

Paul Robeson

Musician (bass-baritone); Actor; Advocate (civil rights)

Sojourner Truth

Advocate (civil rights, women’s rights, temperance); Abolitionist
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Reckoning
The Academy, with the guidance of its Anti-Racism Committee, has been reckoning with its history.
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