September 1, 2026 — The Benjamin L. Hooks Institute for Social Change at the University of Memphis (Memphis, TN) is proud to announce that it is now soliciting nominations for its annual Hooks Institute National Book Award. Submissions are open to non-fiction books that, through scholarly research, further understanding of the Civil Rights Movement and its legacy. Submissions will be accepted through December 31, 2026.
Currently celebrating its 30th anniversary, the Hooks Institute is an interdisciplinary research center at the University of Memphis with the mission of advancing social change and strengthening democracy through research, service and historical preservation.
The Hooks Institute National Book Award Committee, representing various disciplines and higher education institutions in Memphis, awards the annual prize of $1,000 to the winning book. The author(s) of the winning book will deliver an address in the Hooks Institute Lecture Series during the 2026-27 academic year at the University of Memphis.
To be eligible, nominated works must be non-fiction books focusing on the past or current Civil Rights Movement and social change issues, leaders, policies, etc. Books must be published in the 2026 calendar year. Revised editions of previously published books are not eligible.
For more information on the Hooks National Book Award and the nomination process, visit memphis.edu/benhooks or email bhievents@memphis.edu.
About the Benjamin L. Hooks Institute for Social Change
The Benjamin L. Hooks Institute implements its mission of advancing social change and strengthening democracy through research, service, and historical preservation. Other Institute programs and initiatives include the Hooks Policy papers, the Benjamin L. Hooks National Book Award, the Hooks Academic Achievement and Mentoring Inititive (HAAMI), documentary films, funding faculty research initiatives on community issues; implementing community service projects; hosting conferences, symposiums and lectures; and promoting local and national scholarship on civil and human rights. The Hooks Institute is an interdisciplinary center at the University of Memphis. Contributed revenue for the Hooks Institute, including funding from individuals, corporations and foundations, is administered through the University of Memphis Foundation, a 501c(3) organization. Visit memphis.edu/benhooks for more information.
About Dr. Benjamin L. Hooks
Rev. Dr. Benjamin Lawson Hooks was a Civil Rights leader, a Baptist minister, a brilliant legal mind, and a social change pioneer.
A native of Memphis, Hooks enrolled in pre-law at LeMoyne College in Memphis and then served his country in the Second World War. Overseas, Hooks found himself in the humiliating position of guarding Italian prisoners who were allowed to eat in restaurants that were off-limits to him, because he was African-American.
Upon returning home, Hooks earned his J.D. degree in 1948 at DePaul University in Chicago and promptly returned to Tennessee and opened a law practice, confronting prejudice at every turn. After joining the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Hooks felt called to ministry and was ordained a Baptist minister in 1956. He began preaching regularly at the Greater Middle Baptist Church in Memphis and became a pioneer in restaurant sit-ins and other boycotts sponsored by the NAACP.
In 1954, Hooks entered state politics. Twelve years later, he became the first African-American criminal court judge in a court of record in Tennessee’s history. In 1972, Hooks became the first African-American appointee to the Federal Communications Commission. Hooks was elected Executive Director of the NAACP in 1976. Under his fifteen-year leadership, the organization added several hundred thousand new members. In 1986, he was awarded the Spingarn Medal. Hooks’s dedication to social change angered those who wished to maintain the racial status quo. In early 1990, Hooks and his family were among the targets of a wave of bombings against civil rights leaders.
In 1993, Hooks became the President of the Board of Directors of the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, TN. For the rest of his life, Hooks continued to press the cause for civil rights by encouraging both the study of the United States Civil Rights Movement and the identification of contemporary issues that affect minoritized communities, the poor, and the disadvantaged. In 2007, Hooks was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian award. Hooks died at age 85 on April 15, 2010, leaving the Hooks Institute at the University of Memphis to further his commitment to social change.
