January 28, 2011
CESAR PERALES WINS NEW YORK STATE BAR
ASSOCIATION’S 2011 HAYWOOD BURNS AWARD
NEW YORK—Cesar A. Perales, president and general
counsel of LatinoJustice PRLDEF (PRLDEF), was honored with the 2011
Haywood Burns Award from the New York State Bar Association during the
State Bar’s Annual Meeting at the Hilton New York in
Manhattan.
Sponsored by the Committee on Civil Rights, the award recognizes an
individual whose contributions to New York reflect Dean W. Haywood
Burns’ commitment to the struggle for equality and justice, while
sharing Burns’ passion for civil rights and for empowering the
powerless.
The committee honored Perales for his four decades of strong civil
rights leadership. Perales was one of the founders of the Puerto Rican
Legal Defense and Education Fund, now known as LatinoJustice PRLDEF, and
the organization’s first president. Under his leadership, PRLDEF
initiated lawsuits that would establish the right to bilingual
education, strike down civil service requirements that kept Latinos from
public employment, and eliminate barriers to government benefits for
non-English speaking applicants. PRLDEF’s national impact was felt
in 1975 when the U.S. Congress amended the Voting Rights Act to include
the right to bilingual ballots—a right established by PRLDEF in
the federal courts in 1973.
“For nearly 40 years, Cesar Perales has been one of New
York’s most effective and inspiring civil rights leaders. As one
of the founders of LatinoJustice – formerly PRLDEF – in the
early 1970s, Cesar was a pioneering voice in many of the signature civil
rights issues of the day. Twenty years later, after a distinguished
career in public service, Cesar returned to lead LatinoJustice into the
21st Century to defend the basic human and civil rights of immigrants
against a wave of anti-immigrant bias. His decades of devotion to the
Latino community is as heartfelt as it is unmatched,” said
Committee Chair Fernando A. Bohorquez, Jr. of New York (Baker Hostetler
LLP). “On behalf of the committee, we are most pleased to honor
Cesar for his extraordinary work and commitment to the ongoing civil
rights movement.”
A graduate of City College and Fordham Law School, Perales was
former deputy mayor for health and human services for New York City
under Mayor David Dinkins and was commissioner of the New York State
Department of Social Services under Governor Mario Cuomo. He was
confirmed by the Senate as assistant secretary in the Department of
Health and Human Services under President Jimmy Carter.
Following his distinguished career in public service, Perales
rejoined the PRLDEF in 2003, which has since been at the forefront of
one of the Latino communities’ daunting challenges: defending the
basic rights of immigrants. Its recent landmark victories have
established that local anti-immigrant ordinances are preempted by
federal law, that fair housing protections accrue to immigrant families,
and that day laborers have the right to seek employment in public places
without police harassment.
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 dean 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: Mary Sansone, founder of the Congress
of Italian-Americans Organizations Inc. (CIAO) and the Community
Understanding for Racial and Ethnic Equality, Inc. (CURE); 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).
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. Founded in 1876, State Bar programs
and activities have continuously served the public and improved the
justice system for 135 years.
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