The New York Academy of History has chosen Murphy Professor Michael Fortner’s book, Black Silent Majority, the Rockefeller Drug Laws and the Politics of Punishment, to receive the 2016  Herbert H. Lehman  Prize for Distinguished Scholarship in New York History.  Dr. Fortner is an Assistant Professor at the Murphy Institute and the Academic Director for the M.A. in Urban Studies and B.A. in Urban and Community Studies.

In his correspondence to Professor Fortner announcing the award, New York Academy of History President and Columbia Professor Kenneth Jackson, stated that the award, “named in honor of Governor Herbert H. Lehman, is part of the New York Academy of History’s mission to promote and honor outstanding historical research and writing.” Professor Jackson indicated that the “book was selected by jury from more than 60 submissions for prizes for scholarship for 2013, 2014, and 2015.”

The award will be given at the New York Academy of History Gala Dinner on May 5, 2016, at the Cosmopolitan Club in New York City.