2018 Racial Justice Awards
February 21, 2018 @ 5:30 pm - 8:30 pm
| $30.00 – $150.00The Racial Justice Award honorees are selected from nominations of youth, adults, and organizations whose efforts have produced or contributed toward ending racial injustice and promoting social equity in Central New York. Past honorees include educators, community activists, business professionals, and organizations who have channeled their passion and skills towards this important work.
This year’s honorees are: Van Robinson, Lifetime Achievement Award; Jules Nshimiye Mugabo, Racial Justice Youth Award; Dyna Umutoni, Racial Justice Youth Award; and Cindy Squillace and Jack Manno, Racial Justice Awards.
Lifetime Achievement Award
Hon. Van B. Robinson
Hon. Van B. Robinson is a product of Bronx, NY moving to Syracuse, NY in 1968. Upon moving to Syracuse, he began his community activism. His political involvement began almost immediately by volunteering on campaigns of friends and colleagues.
Van worked as an executive at GHI- Group Health Insurance for forty-two years. His political career began when the late Mayor Lee Alexander appointed Van to the City of Syracuse’s Board of Zoning Appeal. In 1999, Van was appointed by then Mayor Matthew Driscoll to fill a vacant Common Council seat; during the next election he ran for the seat and served the council since then. In 2009 and 2013, he won four-year terms as President of the Syracuse Common Council. Van has won five city-wide elections, and formerly served as chair of the Democratic 12th Ward Committee and the 5th Ward Committee. In 2011 he won the Democrat of the Year Award.
Van’s service to the city of Syracuse extends beyond the Common Council, he serves on a number of community boards, commissions, and associations. Some of these memberships are or have been: being a member of the Elmcrest Children’s Center Board of Advisors; a former original member of the Joint Construction School Board; and FOCUS Greater Syracuse. Van served in the Navy and is a member of the USS Antietam Naval Association, and he enjoys traveling frequently to their annual conventions.
Some of Van’s past honors: Deputy Chief; Herman Edge Award; the Citizens of a Crime Free Community Award; the Post Standard Achievement Award; the International Masons Citizens Award; the NAACP Freedom Award; the OMEGA PSI-PHI Citizen of the Year Award; the Benjamin Banneker Democratic Club Achievement Award; the Fort Drum Appreciation Award; and the New York State Council of Black Democrats Appreciation Award.
Van is happily married to Linda Brown-Robinson and a proud father of two children, Donetta and Van E.. He has three adult grandchildren, Jackie, Javon, and Claude, and, most recently, grandson Jovan, Jr.
Racial Justice Youth Award
Jules Nshimiye Mugabo
Jules Nshimiye Mugabo has worked tirelessly to ameliorate social conditions and change societal norms and prejudices through interschool and police-community dialogue activities. He advocates for social justice through poetry, performance, actions and protests. He is proud or recently presenting at the Syracuse Board of Education to advocate for Seeds of Peace, and is currently President of the Seeds of Peace Club at Henninger High School.
At Henninger, he maintains a spot on the Honor Roll and competes in Track and Field. In SUPA Public Policy class, helped shape policies such as Indigenous People’s Day, and he was a large part of the amelioration of the transportation crisis “2 Miles is 2 Far” campaign contributing to allow students to get to school safely. Jules moved here from the Congo three years ago and has been giving back to his new community ever since.
Dyna Umutoni
Dyna Umutoni, works tirelessly to make her school and community more equitable places. She is a PS in the Seeds of Peace at Henninger High School. In this role she has organized students from various backgrounds to give presentations on their culture in order to promote understanding and an appreciation of the diverse community that exists at Henninger; facilitated numerous dialogues, including co-facilitating a dialogue on Islamaphobia with a Muslim Seed from ITC in a collaborative event by InterFaith Works and The Peacemaking Center for the Seeds of Peace and community members on the Near West Side; is actively involved in numerous community groups including IFW’s Police-Community Dialogues and InterFaith Dialogues; and has been has campaigned with other students from Henninger for a more equitable transportation system for students with the 2 Miles is 2 Far Campaign.
She says, “growing up with a single mother and coming to this country, from the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo, was a dream come true, but also comes with a lot of challenges. I have always wanted to make a change in my community but I didn’t know where to begin or what to do but Seeds of Peace has helped me grow in so many ways. I am sure that I CAN AND WILL MAKE CHANGE.”
Racial Justice Awardees
Cindy Squillace and Jack Manno
Cindy Squillace and Jack Manno, life and activist partners, have devoted much of their lives to advocating for multiple peace and justice causes – ending war, ending racism, environmental responsibility, and human-based economics. They are well known and respected for their long time deep and broad work with the Neighbors of Onondaga Nation, (NOON), and as allies to Native people everywhere, although their ending racism work extends far beyond this.
Jack, a retired professor from SUNY-ESF, works and writes extensively about Indigenous values and environmental decisions. In 1993, Jack assisted the Onondagas when an underground gasoline storage tank operated by an illegal gas station was found to be leaking, contaminating the ground water. From working on this and other environmental issues of concern, he developed a deep commitment to learn from and work with the Onondaga Nation. Jack was also a key organizer of the Onondaga Land Rights and Our Common Future educational series held at the Syracuse Stage. He is also a member of the educational collaborative at the Ska-nohn, Great Law of Peace Center, and helped to found the Center for Native People and the Environment at SUNY-ESF.
Cindy is a recently retired social worker and grief counselor. Her career spans Hospice’s Sudden Infant Death Syndrome Program educating CNY about racial disparities with infant mortality. Cindy most recently worked with teens in the Syracuse City High Schools. Over many decades, she has built collaborative projects and long-term friendships with many diverse people and groups, including people from the Onondaga Nation. Some of these projects with the Onondaga Nation include The Good Friends Community Garden, the Plant and Seed Give Away, and raising awareness regarding USA and Native history through an experiential exercise called “Witness to Injustice.”
Jack and Cindy continue to teach and advocate, educating communities to understand that our homes, agencies, and businesses here in CNY are on Onondaga Land, that we have a responsibility to honor the People who are still here, still giving thanks to all the gifts of Creation despite the horrors of the attempted genocide they survived. Cindy and Jack believe and teach that our community’s future depends on working together with Native people to preserve our Mother Earth.
Follow this link for the 2018 Racial Justice Awards Facebook Event page.
Follow this link for the A Raisin in the Sun production event page on the Syracuse Stage website.