CBC Foundation to Honor EPA's Lisa P. Jackson; Athlete, Entrepreneur & Humanitarian George Foreman; Civil Rights Activist The Reverend Dr. Joseph E. Lowery; and Congressman & Civil Rights Activist John Lewis

CBCF Phoenix Awards Annual Dinner Concludes Four-Day Conference

WASHINGTON, Sept. 22, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ --  The Congressional Black Caucus Foundation (CBCF) today announced the 2011 recipients of the Phoenix Award as part of the 41st Annual Legislative Conference (ALC).  The four distinguished individuals who will receive the prestigious Phoenix Award during the fundraiser dinner are: EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson; Athlete, Entrepreneur & Humanitarian George Edward Foreman, Sr.; Civil Rights Activist The Reverend Dr. Joseph E. Lowery; and U.S. Representative and Civil Rights Activist John Lewis.  Each of the honorees was chosen for the tenacity and leadership they have shown in improving the human condition for African Americans.  

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President Barack Obama will attend the Awards Dinner.  In 2008, the president received the award during his tenure in the U.S. Senate.  The "Phoenix Award" was named to echo the statement Rep. George H. White expressed in 1901 when his departure from Congress commenced a 27-year drought of black representation in the House.  In his farewell speech he said in part, "phoenix-like the (Black members of Congress) will rise up some day and come again."  

The dinner closes out  the four-day ALC, a venue that convenes the nation's largest gathering of policy makers, business and community stakeholders, activists, and local, state, regional and national grassroots individuals, to discuss the Black experience in America and to chart a course of action for the coming year.  

More than 4,000 people are expected to attend the dinner.  "This event is the culmination of four days of discussion and planning for the future," said CBCF Chairman Rep. Donald M. Payne, of New Jersey.  "These are tough times for the country, particularly Black America – ALC provides an excellent forum to explore policy issues in order find solutions to some intractable problems, and plan for a better tomorrow."  

"ALC is a diverse gathering of some of the nation's most powerful African Americans, Members of Congress, the nation's top business leaders, civic activists,  and young leaders," said Elsie L. Scott, Ph.D., president and chief executive officer for CBCF.  "It offers one of the most visible ways in which we carry out the Foundation's mission to develop leaders, inform policy and educate the public."

ALC also provides more than 80 forums to address the critical challenges facing the African American community.  The Foundation will offer numerous sessions to present high-level, thought provoking and useful information to engage African Americans in the process of moving our communities forward.  

This year's theme "iLead/iServe" captures and promotes the spirit of community engagement, advocacy and positive change.  The conference is being held September 21-24 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C.  

To learn more about the CBCF, visit www.cbcfinc.org

Twitter – www.twitter.com/CBCFInc (#41stALC)

Facebook – www.facebook.com/CBCFInc

The Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, Inc., was established in 1976 as a nonpartisan, nonprofit, public policy, research and education institute to help improve the socioeconomic circumstances of African Americans and other underserved communities.

Contact: Muriel Cooper 
(202) 263-2829 [email protected]
Priscilla Clarke (240) 476-9643 at [email protected]

SOURCE Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, Inc.