WINNERS OF THE 2009 RFK BOOK AWARD ANNOUNCED
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contact: Simone Greggs, greggs@rfkmemorial.org
202-463-7575 ext 234
Jane Mayer's The Dark Side honored with the 29th Annual Robert F. Kennedy Book Award
Washington, D.C. - The Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights is pleased to announce the selection of Jane Mayer's The Dark Side as the winner of the 2009 Book Award. Karl Jacoby has been chosen to receive special recognition for Shadows at Dawn.
The 29th Annual Robert F. Kennedy Book Award will be presented at a ceremony on Thursday, May 28, 2009 at 6:00 PM at George Washington University in Washington, DC. For more details on the event, please visit www.rfkcenter.org.
In The Dark Side, Jane Mayer, a Washington-based investigative reporter for the New Yorker, chronicles the missteps of top U.S. national security officials in the pursuit of the "War on Terror" and their choices, which ultimately not only violated the Constitution, but hampered the pursuit of those who masterminded the 9-11 attacks. Mayer details the decision making process of top administrative officials as they leveraged national sentiment over the September 11 attacks to undermine human rights in the pursuit of unrivaled presidential power.
Karl Jacoby's Shadows at Dawn examines multiple accounts of one of the worst slaughters in the history of the American West, the Camp Grant Massacre. Jacoby's expansive research analyzes how the events were relayed from four distinct cultural perspectives, giving insight into how each community viewed the violence and chose to revise a dark corner of American history.
"Jane Mayer's The Dark Side explores the core values of our nation's beliefs in justice and humanity - and exposes shocking violations of those values, too long hidden in the shadows. Both her work and Karl Jacoby's Shadows at Dawn speak to themes that were close to the heart of Robert Kennedy's life and career," said John Seigenthaler, Sr., chair of the RFK Book Awards.
Seigenthaler, an acclaimed journalist, editor and publisher and former aide to Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, chaired this year's distinguished panel of judges: screen writer and author, Kristin Carlson Gore, U.S. District Court Judge, William Haynes, and Chair of the Committee of Concerned Journalists, Bill Kovach.
The Robert F. Kennedy Book Award was founded in 1980 with the proceeds from Arthur Schlesinger, Jr's best-selling biography, Robert F. Kennedy and His Times. Each year the RFK Center for Justice and Human Rights presents an award to the book,which in Schlesinger's words, "most faithfully and forcefully reflects Robert Kennedy's purposes-his concern for the poor and powerless, his struggle for honest and even-handed justice, his conviction that a decent society must assure all young people a fair chance, and his faith that a free democracy can act to remedy disparities of power and opportunity" The RFK Book Award has been acknowledged as one of the most prestigious honors an author can receive.
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The Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights (RFK Center) was founded in 1968 by Robert Kennedy's family and friends as a living memorial to carry forward his vision of a more just and peaceful world. Today the impact of the RFK Center's work extends around the globe, through cutting-edge programs promoting human rights and social justice and empowering new generations of leaders.
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