Lonnie G. Bunch III
Author, curator, historian, scholar, and educator Lonnie G. Bunch III will be honored with the NAACP “President’s Award” at the 48th NAACP Image Awards. The awards ceremony will take place on February 11 and will be broadcast on TV One. Anthony Anderson will host. Artists Beyoncé, Chance The Rapper, Solange, Maxwell, Kendrick Lamar, shows such as Atlanta and Insecure, and films Hidden Figures, Moonlight, and Miles Ahead are all nominated for awards. Lonnie G. Bunch III is the founding director of the newly opened Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Bunch previously acted as president of the Chicago Historical Society. Past honorees of the NAACP "President's Award" include Soledad O’Brien, Ruby Dee, Muhammad Ali, Kerry Washington, Spike Lee, John Legend, Van Jones, and President Bill Clinton.
Cornell William Brooks, President and CEO of the NAACP, remarked on Bunch's legacy by saying “Historian, scholar and author Lonnie G. Bunch III, has secured among the sacred places of the American story, a place of honor for the contributions of African Americans to our nation’s history. As the founding director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC), he has helped to amplify stories of our struggles and striving to wrest the shackles of oppression from both body and mind in our undeniable quest to be free.”
