National Civil Rights Museum Honors Susan L. Taylor
The National Civil Rights Museum honored Susan L. Taylor with the 2011 Freedom Award for Activism recently. Details follow in this special report from author and activist asha bandele.
After nearly four decades—three of which were at the helm—Susan left Essence Magazine in 2007 to lead the National CARES Mentoring Movement, a volunteer-driven organization of African American men and women who are dedicated to securing our country’s most vulnerable and precious young people. In just five years and under Susan’s leadership, CARES, now located in nearly 60 cities, has recruited and placed more than 160,000 African American mentors with children who need little more than a caring, stable and wise voice to help guide them across the often difficult terrain they call their lives.
In recognition of all she has done—and all she continues to do—the National Civil Rights Museum, located at the Lorraine Motel where the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated, bestowed upon Susan the 2011 Freedom Award for Activism. In so doing, they said that the National CARES Mentoring Movement “speaks to the legacy left for all of us by Dr. King, who was an advocate for all people, but especially our young people.” The Museum, named by USA Today as one of America’s Top Ten Treasures, has welcomed more than 3 million visitors since they first opened twenty years ago.
The Freedom Award has been bestowed upon the most inspiring leaders of our time since the Museum’s opening in 1991. For their contribution to philanthropy, humanitarian work and social justice, past honorees have included President Nelson Mandela, Rosa Parks, Coretta Scott King, James Farmer, Thurgood Marshall, The Dalai Lama, Diane Nash, Marian Wright Edelman, Bono, Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Oprah Winfrey, Ruby Dee, Sidney Poitier, Harry Belafonte, B. B. King, Stevie Wonder, President Lech Walesa, Myrlie Evers Williams and Elie Weisel among others. In November of 2011, in recognition of their twentieth anniversary, their honoree was my friend, my colleague, my mentor, Susan L. Taylor.
asha bandele is a journalist and the author of five books, including 
two award-winners, The Prisoner’s Wife: A Memoir, and the novel, Daughter. asha’s work has been widely anthologized and has been taught in classrooms from Harvard University to the University of Ankara, Turkey. She’s published articles in The New York Times, Essence, Vibe, Family Circle and scores of other publications. In addition to writing, asha serves as VP of Communications for National CARES Mentoring Movement, Director of the Advocacy Grants Program at the Drug Policy Alliance but is most proud of being mother to her pre-teen daughter whom she is raising in Brooklyn, NY.
