Wichita Mayor Bob Knight has been selected as the inaugural recipient of the Annual Gloria Hobson Nordin Social Equity Award given by the American Society of Public Administrators.
The award recognizes distinguished contributions toward achieving fairness, justice, and equality in governance.
As President of the National League of Cities in 2000, Mayor Knight launched a national initiative to end racism. In announcing the national effort to promote racial justice, Knight said, "I am altogether aware that, as a nation, we are loathe to confront each other on the issue of race. We are afraid of tapping into pent-up frustration, anger, resentment, and pain. Even when we are not aware of harboring such feelings ourselves, we recognize they exist in others. Our natural tendency is to hope they will some how fade away. Unfortunately they won't."
More than 500 cities have now launched ending racism initiatives as result of Mayor Knight’s efforts through the NLC.
In addition to receiving the Social Equity Award, Mayor Knight will serve as the keynote speaker for the ASPA National Conference in Washington, DC on Tuesday, March 18, with an expected audience of approximately 400.
The award is named for former ASPA San Francisco Area Chapter president Gloria Hobson Nordin who dedicated her life to improving social equity, despite being discriminated against as a child and adult. Gloria Hobson was born in Birmingham, Alabama and attended segregated schools until she graduated from high school.
Learn more about ASPA and the Gloria Hobson Nordin Social Equity Award by visiting http://www.aspanet.org/. Learn more about the NLC Ending Racism Initiative by going to http://www.nlc.org/.