Recipients
- 2015: No award
- 2014: No award
- 2013: Tim DeChristopher
- 2012: No award
- 2011: No award
- 2010: No award
- 2009: Jim Gunning
- 2008: No award
- 2007: No award
- 2006: Fred Seidl
- 2005: Ken and Lois Robison of Burleson, TX
- 2004: Russell W. Peterson, Wilmington, DE
- 2003: Pramila Jayapal, Hate Free Zone of Washington State
- 2002: No award
- 2001: Natalie Gulbrandsen
- 2000: Helen Henry
- 1999: Rev. Nicholas Cardell
- 1998: Tom Turnipseed
- 1997: Carol Lee
- 1996: William R. Jones
- 1995: Richard S. Gilbert
- 1994: Marie Fortune
- 1993: Planned Parenthood of America
- 1992: David Eaton
- 1991: Jack Mendelsohn
- 1990: Robert E. Jones (posthumously)
- 1989: Homer A. Jack
- 1988: Society for the Larger Ministry
- 1987: Henry Hampton
- 1986: Rosemary Matson
- 1985: Don Edwards
- 1984: Unitarian Universalist Service Committee
- 1983: Donald Szantho Harrington
- 1982: Nick and Jo Seidita
- 1981: No award
- 1980: Donna Coellenv
- 1979: Roger Baldwin
- 1978: Howard G. Matson
- 1977: John Barker
- 1976: Lotta Hitschmanova
- 1975: National Organization for Women, in memory of Ann London Scott
- 1974: Donald Lothrop
- 1973: Frank Manning
- 1972: United Farm Workers, AFL-CIO
- 1971: Whitney Young (posthumously)
- 1970: John Wells
- 1969: Stephen Hole Fritchman
- 1968: James Luther Adams
- 1967: Dana McLean Greeley
- 1966: Albert D'Orlando
- 1965: James J. Reeb (posthumously)
- 1964: Brooks R. Walker
- 1963: Kenneth R. Warren
- 1962: Ernest H. Sommerfeld and the congregation of the Mt. Vernon Church
- 1961: Mrs. Doe and Mrs. Poe (anonymous women in birth control litigation in Connecticut)
- 1960: J. Ray Shute
- 1959: James C. Brewer
- 1958: Caleb Foote, James Reinhardt, and Paul Meadows
- 1957: Roy Wilkins
- 1956: Martin Luther King, Jr.
- 1955: Edwin Henry Wilson
- 1954: George Schermer
- 1953: Vashti C. McCollum
- 1952: David Rhys Williams and Curtis Reese
- 1951: John Howland Lathrop