The Harriet Tubman African American Museum located in Macon, Georgia

Act of Courage Awards

The Tubman African American Museum created the “Act of Courage” Awards to recognize Georgia residents of all ages and races who exemplify the word courage. Inspired by Harriet Tubman’s legacy, we see courage as “standing up and taking action during challenging circumstances to make a difference for yourself and the lives of others.” This award unifies us all by raising awareness of those who are making a difference. The awards ceremony was held on October 9, 2007 at The Carter Center in Atlanta, Georgia.

Lifetime Achievement category: John Lewis (Atlanta, GA)

John Lewis, Civil Rights leader and Congressional Representative for the 5th U.S. District of Georgia, has been called “one of the most courageous persons the Civil Rights Movement ever produced.” Despite more than 40 arrests, physical attacks and beatings, and serious injuries, Congressman John Lewis has remained committed to the philosophy of nonviolent social change and steadfast in his efforts to protect human rights, secure civil liberties, and build what he describes as “the Beloved Community” in America. “I’ve seen courage in action on many occasions,” Senator John McCain has noted. “I can’t say I’ve seen anyone possess more of it, and use it for any better purpose and to any greater effect than John Lewis.”

Born in Troy, Alabama in 1940, the son of sharecroppers, Lewis attended segregated public schools as a youth and was inspired by the activism, commitment, and success of the Montgomery Bus Boycott to challenge Jim Crow and the color line. As a college student at Fisk University, he organized sit-in demonstrations at segregated lunch counters in Nashville, Tennessee, and in 1961 he volunteered to participate in the Freedom Rides, which attempted to desegregate interstate bus terminals throughout the South. Lewis risked his life on these rides and was severely beaten by an angry mob. Two years later, he led 600 peaceful demonstrators on a proposed march from Selma, Alabama to Montgomery, the state capitol, to protest restrictions on voting rights for African Americans. While crossing the Edmond Pettus Bridge in Selma, Lewis and the marchers were brutally attacked by Alabama state troopers in a confrontation that became known as “Bloody Sunday” – an event which helped hasten passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Despite the many threats on his life and the violence he encountered as a participant and leader in these events, John Lewis remained committed to the Civil Rights Movement and its goals. In 1963 he was a keynote speaker at the historic March on Washington and was acknowledged as one the top six leaders in the Civil Rights Movement. He also served as Associate Director of the Field Foundation and Director of the Voter Education Project of the Southern Regional Council, where he helped add almost 4 million minorities to the voter rolls.

John Lewis’s devotion to community service and his abilities and stature as a leader and activist are also reflected in his political career. In 1981 he was elected to the Atlanta City Council, where he pushed for ethics in government and neighborhood preservation. Five years later, in 1986, he was elected to Congress, where he has served for over two decades as the representative for Georgia’s 5th district. Congressman Lewis is currently Senior Chief Deputy Whip for the Democratic Party in the House, a member of the House Ways and Means Committee, a member of the Subcommittee on Income Security and Family Support, and Chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight.

As Time Magazine noted, Congressman John Lewis’s life and career is “a stirring portrait of the power of moral consistency and courage.” For his bravery and steadfast devotion to human rights, justice, and civil liberties for all Americans, the Tubman African American Museum is proud to present Congressman John Lewis with our first Tubman Lifetime Act of Courage Award.

Adult category: Bert Bivins III (Macon, GA)

Bert Bivins III, former electrician, teacher and currently a County Commissioner of Bibb County, Georgia, has been involved in Civil Rights activities since his teenage years. Following his graduation from all-black Ballard-Hudson High School in Macon, he joined in demonstrations against downtown stores that wouldn’t desegregate, bus boycotts, sit-ins at the Woolworths, Holiday Inn, and the YMCA (which gave up its charter rather than integrate). Despite arrest and threats, he continued with his activities, and in 1963, his efforts to get training in electronics at an all-white vocational school led to the desegregation of the Bibb County school system.

When Bivins applied for admission to Dudley Hughes Vocational School, an all-white institution run by the Bibb County School System, he was suspended by the black administrators at Ballard Hudson and warned by personnel supervisors at his job at Robins Air Force Base that he might lose his job for this action. He was offered the opportunity to return to Ballard-Hudson and receive certification that he had passed the course without taking the test or receive separate tutoring at night at Dudley Hughes. Bert Bivins refuse these offers, determined that he would risk his job rather than receive inferior or separate training. At a stalemate, he decided to write Attorney General Robert Kennedy to protest the fact that a program that was practicing segregation was receiving federal funds.

With talk from Federal officials that the school system could lose some federal funding, the Bibb County Board of Education held a called meeting in June 1963. The board voted to admit Bert Bivins to Dudley Hughes as an exception to the rules of segregation. He finished the training program with the highest average in the class even though he was harassed in class and considered by peers to be inferior.

These actions required great resolve and courage. As Bivins himself recalled, “You know what could happen, but if you’re committed to going, you just go. You just do it. You don’t have time to really go through the emotions at the time, but it hits you later.” Though he is a quiet and soft-spoken man, Bert Bivin’s steely determination not to accept second-class citizenship and segregated facilities brought about a landmark change in Bibb County’s educational system.

Adult category: Lois Curtis (Roswell, GA)

Lois Curtis, artist and advocate for the mentally disabled, was a resident at the Georgia Regional Hospital in Atlanta in 1991, when she reached out for legal assistance in her efforts to escape the isolation, boredom, depression, and restrictions of institutional life. Diagnosed with mental illness, Curtis had been hospitalized repeatedly over two decades with periodic discharges (at times to inappropriate facilities like a homeless shelter) followed by returns to the hospital. She desperately wanted to escape to a community setting where she could interact with people and pursue her art, and her doctors concurred that she would fare much better if she lived in the community and could participate in the routine of normal life. The state of Georgia, however, responded that they had no resources for treating the mentally ill in facilities other than state hospitals and nursing homes and repeatedly denied her request.

When Lois contacted Sue Jamieson, at the Atlanta Legal Aid Society to ask for help, a suit was filed on Lois’s behalf in federal district court against the Georgia Department of Human Services, and a process was set in motion that would eventually result in a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision. The suit, which became known as Olmstead v. L.C. & E.W. was filed in 1995, with Lois Curtis and Elaine Wilson (another resident of the Georgia Regional Hospital with a similar story and history) listed as the plaintiffs. The suit alleged that Lois’s and Elaine’s civil rights were being violated under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which required that public services be administered in the “most integrated setting” that is appropriate to the individual. Since both women’s doctors had said that they could be treated in the community, their continued segregation, according to the suit, was discriminatory and therefore unlawful. The State claimed that it was not discriminating against these women because they were only keeping them in the hospital because the State couldn’t immediately find additional money for community-based services.

.The federal district court ruled in favor of LC and EW and ordered that the women be placed in an appropriate community-based treatment program. The US 11th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the decision. In a hearing at the Eleventh District Court following the decision, Lois Curtis spoke on her own behalf and told the court how she felt about having a place to call home. She talked about things others take for granted -- having a glass of Kool-Aid when she wanted it, listening to the radio, the small act of walking outside. When the state appealed the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court and the case was heard in 1999, Lois Curtis and Elaine Wilson were again present. In a 6 to 3 decision, the Supreme Court ruled that “unnecessary institutionalization amounts to segregation and is a violation of individual civil rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act.” On June 18, 2001, President Bush followed up on this landmark decision by issuing an Executive Order that called for the “swift implementation of the Olmstead Decision,” and demanded that all federal agencies to work with the states to ensure community-based alternatives for individuals with disabilities.

Because of her insistence that she be afforded the same rights as non-disabled people, Lois Curtis brought about a sea change in how states care for and assist the mentally and physically disabled. Today, Curtis lives in a community group home, where she has the opportunity she’s always desired to create and sell her art. She also remains a compelling speaker, always advocating for people with disabilities. For her persistence and bravery, DeKalb County named May 2006 as “Lois Curtis Month,” and this summer (July 3 to August 24 of this year) she was the featured artist in a one-woman show at the Arts for All Gallery in the Healy Building in downtown Atlanta.

Adult category: Nandi Isaac (Macon, GA)

Nanditha “Nandi” Isaac is a Special Olympics athlete and a spokesperson and advocate for people with disabilities. Born with Down syndrome and legally blind, Nandi moved to America from Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates and eventually settled with her parents in Macon, Georgia where she attended and graduated from the Georgia Academy for the Blind.

When she was born, Nandi’s doctor told her parents that she would probably wouldn’t ever talk, walk, or even be toilet-trained. Instead, through courage and perseverance, she has not only become a Global Messenger or public speaker for the Special Olympics, but has also participated during the last 15 years and won medals in a variety of sports, including rollerblading, ice skating, horseback riding, basketball, softball, and one of her current passions – sailing. Nandi had to overcome fears, disabilities, and other obstacles to enjoy and master these sports, but her enthusiasm and courage is undaunted and her spirit unbowed. As she wrote in one of her published journal entrees: “Special Olympics sailing is very important to me because it is a challenging sport, also very daring. Sailing may be easy for some, but it’s not. It teaches you to be a team player it helps you to be a good sport. . . Team skills are hard as you have to move fast and listen to your partner. Also it is a dangerous sport as your board can turn over or you can get struck by lightning. You have to practice every week.”

Nandi is also a spokesperson and advocate for the disabled. She and her mother completed a 9-month course offered by Atlanta Alliance on Developmental Disabilities called “Partners in Policy-Making” that teaches people how to become self-advocates and establish liaisons and working relationships between people needing services and those that make laws affecting them. She has served as a page at the state capitol during “Disability Week” and has advocated with her mother for the “Unlock the Waiting List,” which tries to get money appropriated for services for the disabled, such as housing, assisted living counselors, etc.

In her roles as a spokesperson and advocate for persons with disabilities and her courageous accomplishments as an athlete, Nandi Isaac reminds people and policy-makers that the disabled are an important and contributing sector of our society and that we should always focus more on a person’s ABILITIES than their disabilities when we attempt to determine their worth or their rights.

Adult category: Johnny Mitchell (Lizella, GA)

John T. Mitchell, educator and administrator, was an active advocate for the racial integration of Mercer University in Macon, Georgia. In late 1962, Mr. Mitchell, who was the Director of Admissions for the university, wrote to then Mercer President, Rufus C. Harris, and urged him to accept the application of young black man from Ghana named Samuel Oni, who had been converted to Christianity by a Mercer-trained missionary. Mercer was an all-white institution at that time, but Mr. Mitchell emphasized to President Harris that except for the color of his skin, Oni’s academic credentials would have gained him admittance “without question.” He then went on to ask President Harris, “Would this young Christian understand that the doors to the University which prepared the missionary who brought the Gospel are closed to his converts?”

President Harris followed Mitchell’s recommendation, and the enrollment of Sam Oni desegregated one of the South’s best-known Baptist institutions. But it wasn’t an easy task, even with the support of the university’s president and most of the school’s faculty. In January 1963, a committee of the Board of Trustees unanimously recommended not to proceed with the admission of blacks, and the Mercer Law School alumni passed a resolution 27-17 opposing the admission of black students to the university (as did the Alumni Senate of the Delta Theta Phi Law Fraternity). Others voiced more vocal, and violent, opposition. As John Mitchell’s daughter recalls, “Few people know the threats that were made on my dad’s life, his family, and life of President Rufus Harris, but Johnny Mitchell kept on his steadfast course and was successful in carrying out his peaceful plan of integration. He did it because it was the right thing to do.”

At the spring meeting of the trustees in 1963, President Harris recommended that Oni be enrolled and included this appeal in his report to the board: “Now I would ask you to do a brave thing. I would ask you to remove the barrier because I believe it is the right thing and the Christian course to take. I ask it also because the discrimination is, I believe, a barrier to Mercer’s progress.” After a lengthy, two-hour discussion and substitute motions to delay the decision for 60 days or admit Oni as a foreign exchange student “without changing the admission policy concerning African Americans, the Trustees voted 13 to 5 (with three abstentions) in favor of integrating Mercer University.

In the same year that Civil Rights activists in Birmingham were met with police dogs and fire hoses and four young girls were killed in the bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, Macon’s largest institution of higher education voluntarily voted to desegregate itself with court orders or massive demonstrations and admit a young ministerial student from Africa – a decision and a process that was launched by the recommendation of John T. Mitchell, who like President Harris, knew it was the right thing to do.

Youth category: Shaquinzela “Quin” Simpson

Quin is a Senior at Westside High School in Macon, GA and plans to graduate in the Summer of 2008. At the age of 14, Quin’s mother passed away. Where most teenagers are concerned with fashion and boyfriends, Quin was concerned about where she was going to live. Over the past four years, Quin has lived in a variety of places and endured quite a bit of change. As a protégé member of The Mentors Project of Bibb County, she has made her mentor proud by being a terrific example of someone who makes good choices and has a positive attitude. Quin has been an inspiration to other young people in the program, through her advocacy within the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program. She has also been an asset to the program by participating in several public speaking engagements with local civic organizations; speaking on behalf of the project and the impact that it has had on her life. Quin is proud she is not a statistic, and that she is successful.

The Mentors Project has nominated her for the Act of Courage award based on her proven ability to overcome challenges, make good choices and lead other disadvantaged youth in the right direction.

About The Mentor’s Project of Bibb County:

The Mentors Project was initiated in 1990 by the Education Committee of the Greater Macon Chamber of Commerce. Mentoring was selected as a strategy which research stated was a highly effective means to address the Chamber's concerns for the success of students in the community. At that time, over 600 students in Bibb County Public School System were dropping out of school each year.

A pilot student mentoring program was designed and implemented to provide adult mentors for these at-risk students. The pilot program began at Southeast High School and quickly expanded due to the high success rate with the mentor/protégé pairs. Over the past few years the Mentoring Program has grown from a handful of mentors in one school to more than 130 in nine schools.

Mentors spend a minimum of four hours a month with their protégés. Many spend more, but that is at their own discretion. Mentor-protégé contact may happen during school lunch visits, phone calls, or personal meetings for breakfast together or after school snacks and discussions. Many pairs also take occasional outings or trips, which are encouraged.

The purpose of the program is to provide disadvantaged students the motivation and encouragement of an adult mentor role model who helps students learn to be a success and to reach their potential. The mentoring provides rewarding opportunities to become a positive influence in a student’s life.

Through the match of a middle/high school student in Bibb County, mentors' one-to-one relationships provide a strong motivating force. The program has a proven positive impact on the students' self-esteem and academic performance. Ninety percent of the at-risk students enrolled in our program have been saved from dropping out of school or from receiving in-school suspension or assignment to one of the alternative schools.

In the process of empowering students for a better future, the Mentors Project of Bibb County, Inc. provides a support system to ensure that more students consider post high school educational or training options, positively affect the students' behaviors and attitudes, enhance the students' self-confidence, improve the ability to resist negative peer pressure including drinking, drugs, and pregnancy. The Mentors Project of Bibb County provides a support system that strives to ensure that more students become assets rather than burdens on their community.

For more information about The Mentors Project of Bibb County, please see June O’Neal, Executive Director 478-765-8624

Honorary Youth category: Chris Johnson

Chris Johnson was a football player and student at Northside High School in Warner Robins, GA. In July of 2005, he was playing on the Northside High football team as a freshman when he was diagnosed with acute lymphoblast leukemia. Chris battled cancer that had invaded his body by facing aggressive treatments that wore him down physically for almost two years. Chris died in June, 2007 due to complications from his chemotherapy treatments.

Chris never once complained about the pain or expressed sorrow for himself when he lost the ability to do what he loved doing most; spending time with friends/family and playing football. Instead he constantly visited with the young pediatric oncology patients at The Children’s Hospital to explain the medications and keep their spirits of hope alive. Chris was a devout Christian and the complete team player.

Chris’s devotion had a substantial impact on all the patients he came in contact with. They eagerly waited for Chris to visit them. Chris also touched the hearts of all the doctors, nurses, administrators and board members at The Children’s Hospital in Macon, GA.

Chris was the spokesperson for kid’s cancer at The Children’s Hospital. He never missed the opportunity to speak on radio, TV or newspaper about bone marrow transplants and kid’s cancer. During the two years of his illness Chris was a regular guest on the Children’s Miracle Network Telethon. Chris’s work with Jay’s Hope Foundation led to the single largest day of African-American bone marrow registrants in Middle Georgia history.

Chris Johnson’s actions had such an impact on his coach, that Coach Nix established a scholarship in Chris’s name through the Children’s Miracle Network. Nix eulogized Chris at his memorial service stating “Chris’s legacy will live a long time and if you knew Chris, you know that Chris would do ANYTHING to help others”.

In his honor, Pat Johnson, his mother, will accept the award on his behalf.

“This a terrific way for the unsung heroes of Georgia to be recognized and appreciated for their courage and contribution to society. Each story is an inspiring reminder of the good that ordinary people do and the power that people have to improve the world,” shared Dr. Andy Ambrose, Executive Director for the museum.

“The Tubman Museum is doing a wonderful thing by recognizing these people. It is an honor to be connected with this organization,” expressed Mike Dyer, Vice President and General Manager for Cox Communications.

Cox Communications sponsored this contest and helped make it possible. The contest will continue to be a bi-annual event, alternating with the Sheila Awards.

Please be on the lookout for the next Act of Courage contest; tentatively scheduled to begin in the Summer of 2009.