ACLU of Nebraska to Celebrate 2025 Honorees in Kearney

LINCOLN, Neb. — The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Nebraska is taking its annual meeting to Central Nebraska next week. The civil rights organization will honor several organizations and a longtime advocate during a daylong activist training in Kearney. The event is set for Saturday, Nov. 8. Registration is still open.

This year’s recipients of the organization’s annual awards, selected by the ACLU of Nebraska Board of Directors, include the following:

• Kearney Action Network and Kearney Indivisible are being honored with the Defender of the Bill of Rights Award, which recognizes individuals or organizations working independently of the ACLU of Nebraska to advance civil liberties, equality and justice. Born out of a 2016 dinner party, Kearney Action Network has since grown to a network of more than 500 area residents. The group focuses its efforts on awareness, education, advocacy and activism to strengthen our democratic society. Kearney Indivisible shares a similar mission, fostering community, inspiring hope and providing pathways for tangible change. This award honors their collective organizing and acts of community aid over the last year.
• RISE and Voices for Children in Nebraska are this year’s recipients of the Roger Baldwin Civil Libertarian of the Year Award, which recognizes partners who have worked with the ACLU of Nebraska to advance and protect rights and freedoms. RISE is Nebraska’s largest nonprofit dedicated solely to helping people build new skills through prison programming and helping them succeed when they return home. Voices for Children advocates for equitable opportunity for kids in Nebraska through research, policy and community engagement. This year’s award honors the organizations’ collaborative work opposing legislation that would have lowered the age of criminal prosecution and detention. Advocacy helped secure necessary safeguards that mitigated some of the harm of a new law allowing children as young as 11 to be detained.
• A’Jamal-Rashad Byndon is this year’s recipient of the Robert M. Spire Founders Service Award, which serves as the ACLU of Nebraska’s lifetime achievement award. Born in Hastings and raised in a family of 14, Byndon now lives in Omaha, where he serves his community as chair of the Movement in Omaha for Racial Equity (MORE). His career has focused on social justice and poverty reduction with a specific focus of building bridges between resources and underserved community members. That work includes two years in the Peace Corps in Botswana, 25 years at Catholic Charities, several years in teaching roles and decades of board service on the boards of Nebraskans for Peace, the Charles Drew Health Center, and the ACLU of Nebraska, among many others. Byndon is also a founding member of Omaha’s Table Talk program, one of the first to foster community conversations about diversity and inclusion over dinner. This award honors a lifetime of service.

Mindy Rush Chipman, executive director of the ACLU of Nebraska, said:

“This year’s honorees all show us how persistence and care for our communities can result in meaningful change. The power of persistence and care is important to recognize at any time, but especially this moment. We are looking forward to celebrating all of our honorees in Kearney, and I cannot imagine a better way to do that than pairing our annual meeting with an activist training. Inspirational people create ripple effects, and that is exactly what this event is going to be all about. Our warmest congratulations go out to all of this year’s honorees.”

The ACLU of Nebraska has named annual honorees for more than 30 years, celebrating changemakers and hard-earned progress in our state. A list of past award recipients is available on the ACLU of Nebraska’s website.