The lawyer who filed a federal discrimination lawsuit for residents of public housing in Annapolis is one of seven people to be honored Sept. 30 for their community activism at the 25th annual Fannie Lou Hamer Awards Reception, held online this year because of the coronavirus.

Joe Donahue is the first man to receive an award as part of the Hamer event. He will accept the Alan Hilliard Legum Trailblazer award, named after the Annapolis attorney who successfully sued the city in 1985 claiming it discriminated against black firefighters and fire department applicants.

The award, normally presented during the Rev.

Martin Luther King Jr. Awards Dinner in January, recognizes Donohue’s work resulting in a nearly $2 million in settlements with the city and the Housing Authority of the City of Annapolis over living conditions.

Donahue is a lawyer in private practice in Annapolis who grew up in the city and graduated from the Naval Academy in 2004.

His111-page lawsuit claimed the city and the housing authority discriminated against public housing residents by not meeting standards for housing conditions and failing to require inspections, as the city does for private rental properties.

“Why is the city trying to come up with reasons not to inspect its citizens’ apartments?”

Donahue said in a statement released by the awards committee. “They pay rent, they work, and their landlord doesn’t maintain their properties.”

Donohue’s clients will split $900,000 settlements from both Annapolis and the housing authority. The settlement requires both entities to take steps to address housing conditions but acknowledges no wrong-doing.

The free on-line ceremony will be held at 6 p.m. at mlkjrmd.org Speakers include will include U.S. Reps. John P. Sarbanes and Anthony Brown, Mayor Gavin Buckley and County Executive Steuart Pittman. The event is sponsored by the Martin Luther King Jr. Committee of Anne Arundel County. For more information, call 443-871- 5656. The awards are named for Fannie Lou Hamer, a voting rights activist, civil rights leader, and philanthropist. They recognize local women who have excelled in their chosen field while working to improve civil and human rights in the region.

This year’s other honorees include: Venus Bradford of Annapolis is the family selfsufficiency and homeownership manager, for the Housing Authority, City of Annapolis. She began her career with the Annapolis Housing Authority in 1977, where she held various positions. As Bradford director of the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Program, Bradford was instrumental in removing barriers and stigmas related to Section 8 and public housing tenants. She currently manages 83 families and households to assist families to become selfsufficient and homeowners.

Octavia Brown of Annapolis is a licensed clinical social worker-certified and the founder and lead clinician of the Urban Institute for Mental Health. Brown specializes in racial trauma therapy, trauma-informed Brown care, cognitive behavioral therapy, and behavioral modification. In June, she created a Black Health & Wellness Guide of health and wellness providers in Anne Arundel County.

Emma Buchman of Severna Park is the deputy director of March On Maryland, a member of Connecting The Dots, and helps Community Actively Seeking Transparency.

Buchman organized a number of marches Buchman and events for racial justice, civic engagement, women’s rights, and vigils. She hosts, moderates, or facilitates meetings for multiple organizations, including the Caucus of African American leaders, CAST, March On Foundation and Showing Up For Racial Justice.

Henson Del. Shaneka Henson is a former alderwoman who was appointed to the House of Delegates in 2019. A native Annapolitan, she received her bachelor of science from Coppin State University and law degree from the University of Maryland, School of Law.

Carolyn Jane Meushaw of Edgewater is a member of Showing Up for Racial Justice, a national network of groups and individuals working to undermine white supremacy and to work for racial justice. She serves Meushaw as the co-chair of the Economic Empowerment Committee for the Anne Arundel County Branch of the NAACP.

Toni Strong-Pratt of Annapolis cofounded “Desire” a social group that focuses on drug dependencies and codependencies in Annapolis. She serves on the Nap Town Anti-Dope Movement, where she helps educate and remove the stigma about substance use disorder in underserved communities. She is a graduate of Leadership Anne Arundel and developed People Builders Consulting. She the former chair of Anne Arun- Strong-Pratt del Connecting Together and has been critical in organizing food giveaways and distributing harm reduction materials in Annapolis during the coronavirus pandemic.

Fannie Lou Hamer was the last of 20 children born to Mississippi sharecropper parents. She was instrumental in organizing Mississippi Freedom Summer for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and later became the vice-chair of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, attending the 1964 Democratic National Convention.

She ran for Congress in1964 and1965 and was seated as a member of Mississippi’s official delegation to the Democratic National Convention of1968, where she was an outspoken critic of the Vietnam War.

Hamer died at the age of 57. Her tombstone is engraved with one of her famous quotes, “I am sick and tired of being sick and tired.”

The Annapolis-based Martin Luther King Jr. Committee Inc., founded in 1988, hosts two major events each year, the Hamer reception and the King awards dinner in January. The proceeds are used to pay off debt incurred by building the Civil Rights Foot Soldiers Memorial in Annapolis in 2013.

The committee has placed three memorials to the legacy of King. in Anne Arundel County funded by private donations, a bronze statue at Anne Arundel Community College in 2006, a plaque and garden tribute to King’s wife, Coretta Scott King, in Edgewater and the Civil Rights Foot Soldiers Memorial, honoring Annapolis area residents who marched in the1963 civil rights march on Washington.