The College of Communication and Information will present Knoxville attorney and social justice pioneer Arnold Cohen with the 2019 CCI Diversity Award at CCI’s 11th annual Experience Diversity Banquet. The banquet will be held on Friday, February 22 at 7 p.m. at Buddy’s Banquet Hall in Knoxville.
Cohen, one of Knoxville’s leading voices for racial justice, sees fighting discrimination on any basis as both a moral obligation and a strategic necessity. “Anyone who is ‘the other’ is vulnerable,” according to Cohen. His racial justice work includes: past service as a member of the Board of Directors of the Race Relations Center of East Tennessee and participation in the Center’s Undoing Racism workshops; serving as a member of the Knoxville Jewish Alliance Board of Directors and chairing its Community Relations Committee; serving as a member of the University of Tennessee Chancellor’s Task Force on Civility and Community; serving as a member of the Board of Directors of the Beck Cultural Exchange Center; and helping to foster a stronger relationship between a variety of groups to fight discrimination in Knoxville.
Knox County honored Cohen for his racial justice work when it named him as an East Tennessee Civil-Rights Pioneer as part of its Presidential Inauguration Celebration in 2009.
The keynoter at the banquet will be UT Social Work Associate Professor Stan Bowie. Bowie has won many awards including: the UT Chancellor’s Citation for Excellence in Teaching, the UT National Alumni Outstanding Teacher Award, the UT Commission for Blacks Hardy Liston, Jr. – Symbol of Hope Award, and the African American Image Award. He is also very active in the Knoxville community through his service on the Board of Directors of: the Knoxville Area Urban League, the United Way of Knox County, the Beck Cultural Exchange Center, and The State of Higher Education in Black America.
The banquet is the annual fundraiser for CCI’s Diversity Student Leaders Society (DSLS). Proceeds from the banquet are used to support DSLS student networking trips and other activities. Tickets are $40 each or $400 for a table of ten. To purchase tickets, contact Beth Cole at bethcole@utk.edu or 865-974-1540.