Scholar Shelby Steele to Receive 2006 Bradley Prize

The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation announced today that one of the four 2006 Bradley Prizes to honor outstanding achievement will be awarded to Shelby Steele of the Hoover Institution.

As a Senior Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Dr. Steele specializes in race relations, American social culture, and identity politics. He has written extensively for major publications and has had a profound influence on mainstream attitudes about the roles of education, families, and character in overcoming the legacy of slavery and segregation. Dr. Steele received the National Book Critic's Circle Award for his book The Content of Our Character: A New Vision of Race in America. His most recent books are A Dream Deferred: The Second Betrayal of Black Freedom in America and White Guilt: How Blacks and Whites Together Destroyed the Promise of the Civil Rights Era. In 1991, Dr. Steele earned an Emmy Award, a Writer's Guild Award, and the San Francisco Film Festival Award for his work on the PBS documentary Seven Days in Bensonhurst. In 1994, he was awarded the National Humanities Medal.

"The Bradley Foundation is honoring Dr. Steele for his contributions to the study of race in America and his undying devotion to equality for all," said Michael W. Grebe, president and chief executive officer of the Bradley Foundation. "He has a distinguished body of work that has led to understanding of racial equality in America."

Along with three other recipients, Dr. Steele will be presented the awards during a ceremony to be held at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, May 25. Each award carries a stipend of $250,000.

The selection was based on nominations solicited from more than 100 prominent individuals. The winners were ultimately chosen by a selection committee that included Thomas L. "Dusty" Rhodes, Michael W. Grebe, William F. Buckley, George F. Will, Charles Krauthammer, Terry Considine, Reed Coleman and Dianne Sehler.

"Through the Bradley Prizes, we recognize individuals who have made outstanding contributions and we hope to encourage others to strive for excellence in their respective fields," said Grebe.

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Founded in 1985, The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation is devoted to strengthening American democratic capitalism and the institutions, principles and values that sustain and nurture it. Its programs support limited, competent government; a dynamic marketplace for economic, cultural activity; and a vigorous defense, at home and abroad, of American ideas and institutions. Recognizing that responsible self-government depends on enlightened citizens and informed public opinion, the Foundation supports scholarly studies and academic achievement.

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