James W.C. Pennington Award

In 2011, the Heidelberg Center for American Studies (HCA) and the Faculty of Theology of Heidelberg University established the James W.C. Pennington Award. It pays tribute to the churchman and former slave James W.C. Pennington, who in 1849 was the first African American to receive an honorary doctorate from Heidelberg University. The James W.C. Pennington Award is given to scholars who have done distinguished work on topics important to Pennington: slavery, emancipation, peace, education, reform, civil rights, religion, and intercultural understanding. The James W.C. Pennington Award is generously endowed by the Manfred Lautenschläger Foundation.