The award, which consists of a gold medal, was created by Joel Elias Spingarn , Chairman of the Board of the NAACP in 1914 . It was first awarded to biologist Ernest E. Just in 1915 , and has been given each year thereafter, with the exception of 1938.
Well-known recipients of the award include: W.E.B. Du Bois , Colonel Charles Young , George Washington Carver , Marian Anderson , Paul Robeson , Thurgood Marshall , Jackie Robinson , Martin Luther King, Jr. , Langston Hughes , Sammy Davis, Jr. , Alex Haley , Andrew Young , Rosa Parks , Coleman Young , Lena Horne , Bill Cosby, Jr. , Jesse Jackson , Colin Powell , Maya Angelou , and Oprah Winfrey .
- 1915 Ernest E. Just (biologist)
- 1916 Colonel Charles Young (U.S. Army)
- 1917 Harry T. Burleigh (composer, pianist, singer)
- 1918 William S. B. Braithwaite (poet, editor, literary critic).
- 1919 Archibald H. Grimke (U.S. Consul, president of the American Negro Academy, president of the D. C. Branch of the NAACP)
- 1920 William E. B. Du Bois (author, founder of NAACP)
- 1921 Charles S. Gilpin (actor)
- 1922 Mary B. Talbert (president, National Association of Colored Women)
- 1923 George Washington Carver (botanist)
- 1924 Roland Hayes (singer, soloist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra)
- 1925 James Weldon Johnson (poet, Executive Secretary of the NAACP)
- 1926 Carter G. Woodson (historian and founder of the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, editor of ''Negro Orators and Their Orations'')
- 1927 Anthony Overton (businessman, president of the Victory Life Insurance Company)
- 1928 Charles W. Chesnutt (author)
- 1929 Mordecai W. Johnson (educator)
- 1930 Henry A. Hunt (high school principal)
- 1931 Richard B. Harrison (actor)
- 1932 Robert Russa Moton (principal of Tuskegee Institute)
- 1933 Max Yergan (missionary)
- 1934 William T. B. Williams (dean of Tuskegee Institute)
- 1935 Mary McLeod Bethune (educator and activist)
- 1936 John Hope (educator)
- 1937 Walter F. White (executive secretary of the NAACP)
- 1938 No award given
- 1939 Marian Anderson (opera singer)
- 1940 Louis T. Wright (surgeon)
- 1941 Richard N. Wright (author)
- 1942 A. Philip Randolph (labor leader)
- 1943 William H. Hastie (jurist and educator)
- 1944 Charles R. Drew (physician)
- 1945 Paul Robeson (singer, actor)
- 1946 Thurgood Marshall (lawyer and later Solicitor General and Supreme Court justice)
- 1947 Percy L. Julian (research scientist)
- 1948 Channing Heggie Tobias (participant on the President's Committee On Civil Rights )
- 1949 Ralph J. Bunche (diplomat and Nobel Laureate , 1950 )
- 1950 Charles Hamilton Houston (Chairman, NAACP Legal Committee )
- 1951 Mabel K. Staupers (leader of the National Association Of Colored Graduate Nurses )
- 1952 Harry T. Moore ( NAACP leader, martyr in the "crusade for freedom")
- 1953 Paul R. Williams (architect)
- 1954 Theodore K. Lawless (physician, educator, philanthropist)
- 1955 Carl J. Murphy (editor, publisher, civic leader)
- 1956 Jack R. Robinson (athlete)
- 1957 Martin Luther King, Jr. (activist and minister)
- 1958 Daisy Bates and the Little Rock Nine (desegregation activists)
- 1959 Edward "Duke" Ellington (composer and pianist)
- 1960 J. Langston Hughes (poet and playwright)
- 1961 Kenneth B. Clark (professor of Psychology at CCNY)
- 1962 Robert C. Weaver (Administrator of Housing and Home Finance Agency)
- 1963 Medgar W. Evers (martyr in the civil rights movement in Mississippi)
- 1964 Roy Wilkins (Executive Director of the NAACP)
- 1965 Leontyne Price (Metropolitan Opera star)
- 1966 John Harold Johnson (founder and president of Johnson Publishing Co.)
- 1967 Edward W. Brooke III (first Negro to win popular election to the U.S. Senate)
- 1968 Sammy Davis, Jr. (entertainer)
- 1969 Clarence M. Mitchell, Jr. (NAACP regional director, civil rights lobbyist)
- 1970 Jacob Lawrence (painter)
- 1971 Leon H. Sullivan (clergyman, activist, prophet)
- 1972 Gordon Parks (photographer, writer, filmmaker, composer)
- 1973 Wilson C. Riles (educator)
- 1974 Damon J. Keith (jurist)
- 1975 Henry L. Aaron (athlete)
- 1976 Alvin Ailey, Jr. (choreographer and dancer)
- 1977 Alexander P. Haley (author)
- 1978 Andrew Young (diplomat, civil rights activist, minister)
- 1979 Rosa L. Parks (activist)
- 1980 Rayford W. Logan (educator, historian, author)
- 1981 Coleman A. Young (politician)
- 1982 Benjamin Mays (educator, civil rights activist, president of Morehouse College )
- 1983 Lena Horne (singer)
- 1984 Thomas Bradley (mayor of Los Angeles)
- 1985 William H. Cosby, Jr. (entertainer, author and educator)
- 1986 Benjamin Hooks (Executive Director of the NAACP)
- 1987 Percy Sutton (public servant, businessman, community leader)
- 1988 Frederick Douglass Patterson (educator, veterinarian, visionary, humanitarian)
- 1989 Jesse L. Jackson (civil rights activist and Presidential candidate)
- 1990 L. Douglas Wilder (public servant)
- 1991 General Colin L. Powell (public servant)
- 1992 Barbara C. Jordan (public servant)
- 1993 Dorothy I. Height (president of the National Council of Negro Women)
- 1994 Maya Angelou (author)
- 1995 John Hope Franklin (historian, educator)
- 1996 Aloyisus Leon Higginbotham, Jr. (jurist, public servant)
- 1997 Carl T. Rowan (journalist)
- 1998 Myrlie Evers-Williams (civil rights activist, Chairman of the NAACP)
- 1999 Earl G. Graves, Sr. (chairman of Black Enterprise Magazine)
- 2000 Oprah Winfrey (actress and philanthropist)
- 2001 Vernon E. Jordan, Jr. (public servant)
- 2002 John Lewis (civil rights activist and member of Congress)
- 2003 Constance Baker Motley (federal court judge, Senator)
- 2004 Robert L. Carter (federal court judge, cofounder of National Conference Of Black Lawyers )
- 2005 Oliver W. Hill (civil rights lawyer)
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