Earl T. Shinhoster Political Action Award presented to Lonnie Cooper.
Lonnie Cooper, campus executive at Ottawa University-Indiana in Jeffersonville, was recently awarded the Earl T. Shinhoster Political Action Award by the Indiana State NAACP Political Action Committee. The Shinhoster award is given out annually and is given in memory of the national NAACP interim executive director who died in an automobile wreck in 2000.
"I was extremely surprised and even more honored to receive the award, especially since it is a political action award," said Cooper. "I have been very active in the civil rights movement since returning to Indiana back in 1995. As a lawyer, I have the tools and the training to assist in the effectuation of change in the civil rights area."
From 1995-2000, Cooper was one of the few practicing civil rights attorneys in Southern Indiana and his first case forced the town of Clarksville to hire its first African-American fire fighter in over 200 years as an Indiana municipality. Though no longer practicing law, Cooper serves as pro bono counsel for the Southern Indiana Black Chamber of Commerce.
Cooper oversaw the creation of a civil rights course at Ottawa University in January 2009 to coincide with the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday and Black History Month in February. "Women of the Civil Rights Movement" involved both Ottawa University students and the community as several class sessions were held at various historically African-American churches. The next civil rights course that Cooper is considering for spring term 2010 will focus on Supreme Court cases and their historical context.
Cooper was awarded the Earl T. Shinhoster Political Action Award along with the Honorable Maria Granger, the first African-American female judge in Southern Indiana. Granger is a superior court judge in Floyd County, Indiana. Pictured (left to right): Hilary O. Shelton, Director of NAACP's Washington, DC, bureau, Lonnie Cooper, Ron Fields, past president of the Indiana NAACP Political Action Committee.