February 2, 2010
MARY SANSONE WINS NEW YORK STATE BAR
ASSOCIATION’S 2010 HAYWOOD BURNS AWARD FOR CIVIL RIGHTS
ADVOCACY
Sansone noted for eight decades of advocacy
promoting social justice
NEW YORK—93-year-old Mary Sansone, founder of the Congress of
Italian-Americans Organizations Inc. (CIAO) and the Community
Understanding for Racial and Ethnic Equality, Inc. (CURE), was honored
with the 2010 Haywood Burns Award from the New York State Bar
Association on January 28 during the State Bar Association’s
Annual Meeting at the Hilton New York in Manhattan. Sponsored by the
Committee on Civil Rights, the award is given annually to an individual
whose contributions to New York reflect Dean W. Haywood Burns’
commitment to the struggle for equality and justice, while sharing
Burns’ unique passion as an advocate for civil rights and for
empowering the powerless.
The committee honored Sansone, a Brooklyn native, for her decades of
extraordinary devotion to civil rights and social justice. Among her
many accomplishments, Sansone organized the first community coalition
between African-Americans, Latinos and Italians in Brooklyn. She
conducted a demographic study in 1977 that exposed the still significant
poverty in the Italian-American community, bringing national attention
to the plight of these working poor. In 1976, she organized an effort
that successfully lobbied Governor Dukakis of Massachusetts to review
the famous 1920’s cases of Ferdinando Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo
Venzetti. The result was a March 1977 proclamation that said "the trial
and execution of Sacco and Venzetti should serve and remind all
civilized people of the constant need to guard against our
susceptibility to prejudice, our intolerance of unorthodox ideas, and
failure to defend.”
“Since she began organizing strikes in the garment industry at
the age of 14, Mary Sansone has been an effective civil rights leader
for 80 years, with her unmatched ability to inspire others and to build
bridges of tolerance among diverse groups of people,” said
Committee Chair Fernando A. Bohorquez, Jr. of New York (Baker Hostetler
LLP). “She is a dynamic individual, and we are pleased to
recognize her myriad and long-lasting accomplishments in building a more
just society.”
Since 1970, Sansone has been the executive director of CIAO, which is
committed to promoting racial harmony and strengthening human rights.
Through the years, Sansone has developed 22 programs geared toward
helping the poor and has assisted people with their problems across
racial and religious lines. In 1988, she founded CURE, which is
dedicated to reducing ethnic and racial tension while promoting mutual
respect and understanding among groups within the community.
A graduate of the Rand School, Sansone is on the Advisory Board of
the New York State Division of Human Rights, the New York State Division
of Women and several other organizations.
The award is given to honor the significant contributions of the late
civil rights lawyer and academic, Dean W. Haywood Burns. From the young
age of 15 until his untimely death at the age of 55 while promoting
civil rights in post-apartheid South Africa, the former head of the City
University of New York School of Law was a leader in the cause of
expanding the civil rights of all people.
Previous award winners include: Dr. Parveen Chopra; Donna Lieberman
of New York (executive director, New York Civil Liberties Union); and
Hon. Cornelius Blackshear of New York (retired, U.S. Bankruptcy Court of
the Southern District of New York).
Founded in 1876, the 77,000-member New York State Bar Association is
the official statewide organization of lawyers in New York and the
largest voluntary state bar association in the nation. The State
Bar’s programs and activities have continuously served the public
and improved the justice system for more than 130 years.
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