Reverend Dr. Amos C. Brown One of the convention’s most powerful and emotional moments came as the NAACP honored Rev. Dr. Amos C. Brown, a longtime civil rights leader, pastor, and tireless advocate for justice, with the 111th Spingarn Medal, the organization’s highest honor.
During his acceptance remarks, Brown paused to invite the Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright to join him on stage for an impromptu tribute. Brown praised Wright’s family legacy, noting that his grandfather served as president of Virginia Union University and his father pastored the historic Grace Baptist Church in Philadelphia. He described Wright as part of a generation of Black liberation theologians who taught that faith must shape every aspect of life, not simply Sunday worship.
“The NAACP knows what you’ve done,” Brown told Wright. “We’re going to make sure they know. Jeremiah Wright knew what he was preaching about.”
The Spingarn Medal is the NAACP’s highest honor, recognizing individuals whose outstanding achievements have advanced justice, equality, and excellence. Since its establishment in 1915, the medal has been awarded to many of the nation’s most influential leaders, artists, scholars, athletes, and public servants. Notable recipients include W.E.B. Du Bois (1920), Richard Wright (1941), A. Philip Randolph (1942), Paul Robeson (1945), Martin Luther King Jr. (1957), Duke Ellington (1959), Langston Hughes (1960), Hank Aaron (1976), Bill Cosby (1985), Maya Angelou (1994), Ruby Dee (2008), Willie Brown (2018), and Henry Louis Gates Jr. (2024).