Ollie May Cooper Award Recipient:
Barbara R. Arnwine

Executive Director of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law

A graduate of Scripps College in Claremont, California, Ms. Arnwine received her law degree from Duke University School of Law. Prior to her employment with the national office of the Lawyers' Committee, Ms. Arnwine was the Executive Director of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law of the Boston Bar.

She is renowned for her work on the passage of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1991. Throughout the 1991 campaign, the technical assistance of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights was critical to passage of the Act.

In April 1994, Ms. Arnwine visited South Africa as a member of the advance team of the Lawyers' Committee's South Africa Electoral Observers Delegation.

In 1995, Ms. Arnwine served as the National Convenor of the National Conference on African American Women and the Law held in Washington, D.C., and attended by over 1,000 persons. As a result of the conference, Ms. Arnwine led a delegation to the NGO Forum and Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing. Her efforts there contributed to a United Nations Platform for Action that provides protection for women who confront multiple forms of discrimination.

In 2001, Ms. Arnwine represented African descendants from the Americas in drafting provisions of the program for action of the UN World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and related Intolerance in Durban, South Africa. She also organized a Lawyers' Committee delegation to participate in the NGO Forum at the WCAR.

In 2004, Ms. Arnwine was a prominent leader of the nonpartisan Election Protection Coalition and helped to organize 8,000 lawyers throughout the nation to staff the 1-866 OUR VOTE National Hotline, serve as poll monitors and mobile field attorneys in over 28 states. In addition, Ms. Arnwine has been a frequent public speaker in the national media on the issue of electoral barriers and needed federal and state reforms. In 2005, the Lawyers' Committee organized a National Blue Ribbon Commission on the Voting Rights Act to conduct regional hearings throughout the nation to assess continuing obstacles to the exercise of the political franchise. The Commission's report, "Protecting Minority Voters: The Voting Rights Act at Work 1982-2005," was released in 2006.

In 2005, in response to the outcry for assistance after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, Ms. Arnwine mobilized the resources of the Lawyers' Committee to provide assistance to the storms' survivors. The Lawyers' Committee has advocated for the rights and dignities of Katrina survivors by enjoining Christmas Eve evictions in Gulfport, Mississippi, and initiating a lawsuit against FEMA for its failure to provide necessary assistance. All of these actions resulted in policy and procedural changes that placed assistance in the hands of those most in need.