Manhattan Institute Announces Recipients of the Sixteenth Annual Alexander Hamilton Award

Announcing Recipients of the Sixteenth Annual Alexander Hamilton Award
Harvey A. Silverglate
Civil Liberties Litigator, Author, and Co-Founder,
Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE)
Bruce Kovner
Founder, CAM Capital, and
Chair, Board of Trustees, The Juilliard School

NEW YORK, April 12, 2016 -- The Manhattan Institute has announced its 2016 winners of the annual Alexander Hamilton Award. For their critical work to keep speech free and culture flourishing, Harvey A. Silverglate and Bruce Kovner will be honored and presented with the award at the annual black-tie dinner on May 9, 2016.

"The Alexander Hamilton Award was created to honor individuals who have made exceptional contributions to the nation's civic and intellectual life," said Manhattan Institute President Lawrence Mone. "This year's honorees are paragons of the Hamiltonian virtues the award sets out to recognize: civic leadership, entrepreneurial spirit, and intellectual dynamism."

"This award is particularly meaningful for me, coming as it does from the Manhattan Institute, which has long fought for many of the same values that have been central to my legal work and advocacy seeking to preserve academic institutions and keep them focused on the humane values on which the success of our American experiment in liberty depends," said Harvey A. Silverglate. "It is no mere coincidence that I am honored with Bruce Kovner, who has long recognized the importance of healthy educational and cultural institutions."

"I am thrilled to join Harvey Silverglate in receiving this year's Hamilton Award," said Bruce Kovner. "New York and the nation are served so extraordinarily well by Manhattan Institute's continuing efforts to explore and defend best public policy as well as to promote and recognize the role of private institutions and civic leadership in making our city and country great.  It is an honor to join the ranks of past honorees and to recognize the efforts of the institutions that help make our city flourish!"

In his work as a civil litigator, author, and the co-founder of the FIRE, Harvey A. Silverglate has long been a fierce defender of civil liberties. In 1998, Silverglate coauthored The Shadow University: The Betrayal of Liberty on America's Campuses. Following the book's success, he co-founded FIRE, a nonprofit dedicated to preserving and enlarging academic freedom, due process, and freedom of speech and conscience on American college campuses. Silverglate is also author of Three Felonies a Day: How the Feds Target the Innocent (2009).

Mr. Kovner serves as chairman of the board of the Juilliard School and vice-chairman of Lincoln Center. He is a long-time supporter of education reform and charter schools in New York and around the country, and continues to play a leading role in the renovation and revitalization of Lincoln Center and other arts institutions. A former member of the board at Manhattan Institute, Mr. Kovner led the American Enterprise Institute as chairman for many years.

Previous Alexander Hamilton Award winners include: New York Archbishop Timothy Cardinal Dolan, former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, Success Academy Founder and CEO Eva Moskowitz, former Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, former NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly, and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, among others.

Click here for more information about this year's dinner.

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CONTACT: Michele Jacob
         Director of Media Relations
         Manhattan Institute
         (646) 839-3387
         [email protected]