Emerita Professor Genna Rae McNeil is co-winner of this year’s Charles Hamilton Houston Medallion of Merit, conferred by the Washington DC Bar Association. In 1925, the Association was co-founded by Charles Hamilton Houston, whose prize-winning biography, Groundwork, was written by none other than Genna Rae McNeil.
The award is conferred upon those who “embody a commitment to the ideals of Houstonian Jurisprudence.” Previous honorees have included Justice Thurgood Marshall, Justice William Brennan, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, The Honorable William Henry Hastie, The Honorable Eric Holder, The Honorable Annice Wagner (formerly of the Houston Law firm and retired Chief Judge of the DC Court of Appeals), Congressman John Lewis, Governor L. Douglas Wilder, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (posthumously), Professor John Hope Franklin and Professor Charles J. Ogletree. This year’s co awardee, Paulette Brown, Esq., was the first woman of color to serve as president of the American Bar Association. She is known for having developed policy initiatives that resulted in major changes in connection with diversity and inclusion in the legal profession.