2024 Honorees
The National Black Justice Coalition (NBJC) proudly presents the 4th annual James Baldwin Legacy Awards commemorating National Senior Citizens Day on Tuesday, October 1, 2024, at 1 pm EST. This signature event honors iconic Black GBTQ+/SGL men and masculine elders and celebrate the process of aging while sharing the wisdom accrued by our elders through this virtual event. We honor Black male and masculine elders who have blazed trails across a number of fields and careers.
You can stream the show on October 1st at 1 pm ET here or comment live on Facebook or YouTube.
The honorees this year include (in alphabetical order):
Rev. Yunus Coldman
Rev. Yunus Coldman is an ordained Interfaith minister. He is the Eastern Regional Minister for TransSaints - a ministry of The Fellowship of Affirming Ministries and an Associate Pastor at Rivers of Living Water UCC. He participates in numerous panel discussions, workshops, and speaking engagements to express the unique viewpoint of faith experiences and the intersections of being Black and Transgender.
Gil Gerald
Gil Gerald is an Afro-Panamanian activist, essayist, and architect known for his HIV/AIDS activism. He co-founded NMAC and served as the executive director of the Minority AIDS Project. He is also an LGBT rights advocate, having led a sit-in to force SGL inclusion at the 20th Anniversary of the March on Washington. He has also co-founded the National Coalition of Black Lesbians and Gays.
Edward Jones
Edward Jones is a social justice, philanthropy, and equality movement leader. He serves as Vice President of Programs and Philanthropic Advising Services at ABFE: A Philanthropic Partnership for Black Communities and Vice Chair for the Weissberg Foundation. He is also a founding member of Benefactors: A Black Giving Collective. Edward is a past board member of Us Helping Us, People into Living, Inc. and former Director of Conference Programming at the Council on Foundations.
Cornelius Moore
Cornelius Moore is co-director and emeritus of California Newsreel, a distributor of social issues and Black and African diasporic films. He continues to curate film programs for venues such as Philadelphia’s Scribe Video Center and San Francisco's Museum of the African Diaspora. He appeared in Marlon Riggs' groundbreaking film essay Tongues Untied and advocated for its worldwide recognition and continuing impact.
Mayor Ron Oden
Ron Oden has an extended history of community activism and political service in Palm Springs, CA. In 1995, he won election as a City Council member. In November 2003, he was elected Mayor of Palm Springs, becoming the first Black, out LGBTQ+ person elected mayor of any U.S. city. Ron championed embracing Palm Springs’ past and its diverse LGBTQ+ community and, as Mayor, focused on expanding diversity while leading the city’s first LGBTQ+ majority on the City Council.
Rev. Dr. Roland Stringfellow
Rev. Dr. Roland Stringfellow serves as Senior Pastor at the Metropolitan Community Church of Detroit. He is also the Managing Director of the Center for LGBTQ and Gender Studies in Religion at the Pacific School of Religion, where he founded The Umoja Project, a curriculum for Black church LGBTQ+ inclusion. Roland was the Bay Area Faith Director in the fight against California’s Proposition 8. Currently, he serves older LGBTQ adults with Mi Gen, Michigan’s LGBTQ+ Elder Network, and is helping to open senior housing that will be LGBTQ-inclusive north of Detroit in October 2024.
Tim Vincent
Tim Vincent is the President and co-founder of Brothers of the Desert, a non-profit organization focused on empowering and supporting Black gay men through education, advocacy, social networking and more. They aim to dismantle the barriers of isolation, disconnection, and inequities that Black gay men often face. He has been working to promote health equity, especially for LGBTQ+ Black communities related to HIV and other health-related issues, for over 30 years in direct service and program management. He is currently consulting on a five-year study headed by the RAND Corporation to examine the connection between wellness, isolation, and aging for Black sexual minority men throughout the US.
