Register for the 2024 Book and Journalism AwardsJoin us for the virtual ceremony on May 21!
Register now for the virtual celebration, where we'll reveal this year's winners. The ceremony will premiere at 12 p.m. EDT and will re-air at 3 p.m. EDT.
About the awards
The Robert F. Kennedy Book Award was founded in 1980 with the proceeds from Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.’s bestselling biography, Robert Kennedy and His Times. Each year, Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights presents an award to the book that, as Schlesinger said, "most faithfully and forcefully reflects Robert Kennedy’s purposes – his concern for the poor and the powerless, his struggle for honest and even-handed justice, his conviction that a decent society must assure all young people a fair chance, and his faith that a free democracy can act to remedy disparities of power and opportunity."
Founded by the reporters who covered Robert F. Kennedy's historic 1968 presidential campaign, the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Awards honor outstanding reporting on issues that reflect Robert Kennedy's concerns, including human rights, social justice, and the power of individual action in the United States and around the world. Entries should provide insights into the causes, conditions, and remedies of human rights violations and injustice, and critical analysis of relevant policies, programs, individual actions, and private endeavors that foster positive change. The Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Awards are among the few in which winners are determined by their peers. Entries should provide insights into the causes, conditions, and remedies of human rights violations and injustice, and critical analysis of relevant policies, programs, individual actions, and private endeavors that foster positive change.
This year's special guest presenters
2024Kerry Kennedy
Kerry Kennedy is President of Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights. A human rights activist and lawyer, she authored New York Times best seller Being Catholic Now, as well as Speak Truth to Power and Robert F. Kennedy: Ripples of Hope.
2024Michael Beschloss
2024Margaret Engel
Margaret Engel directs the Alicia Patterson Journalism Foundation, which gives grants to journalists in the name of Alicia Patterson, the founder of Newsday.
Watch Past Ceremonies
2023 Ceremony
2022 Ceremony
2021 Ceremony
Past Book Award Winners
2023Peniel E. Joseph
The Third Reconstruction: America's Struggle for Racial Justice in the Twenty-First Century
2022Heather McGhee
The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together
2022Elizabeth K. Hinton
America on Fire: The Untold History of Police Violence and Black Rebellion Since the 1960s