William Lucy will be awarded NAACP’s most prestigious award! 

Prominent labor union organizer and leader William Lucy will be presented with the Chairman’s Award by Leon W. Russell, current chairman of NAACP, during the Image Awards in January. This award is amongst their most prestigious and is bestowed upon those that exemplify public service and use their individual platforms to promote change.

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Wiliam Lucy has played a large role in the social justice movement and worked with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968 during the Memphis sanitation strike. He also took part in the anti-apartheid movement which helped to free Nelson Mandela. Mr. Lucy has made his mark on civil and human rights in the U.S. as well as around the world.

For over forty years, Mr. Lucy has been front and center of the labor movement in the U.S. and the rest of the world. He is the co-founder of the Free South Africa Movement, a grassroots campaign that helped raise opposition to apartheid in the U.S, and was present when Nelson Mandela was elected as the first black President of South Africa.

Past honorees of the Chairman’s Award include Tyler Perry, Bono, Danny Glover, former Vice President Al Gore, The Neville Brothers, then-Senator Barack Obama, Jussie Smollett and Ruby Dee.

The NAACP Image Awards will air on Monday, January 15th, 2018 on TV One.