FFRF Awards

This award was suggested by Vietnam War vet and longtime Board Member Steve Trunk (pictured with Jeremy Hall), to combat the ridiculous myth that there are no "atheists in foxholes," and, in particular, to recognize activism to defend the constitutional principle of separation between state and church which every soldier takes an oath to uphold. Pictured: Steve Trunk bestowing the Atheist in Foxhole Award to Jeremy Hall. Photo by Brent Nicastro

With his widow Rafida Bonya Ahmed, the Freedom From Religion Foundation introduced the annual Avijit Roy Courage Award, including a crystal plaque and $5,000 in 2018. The award honors the life and work of the Bangladeshi-American atheist and author assassinated in Dhaka, Bangladesh in 2015 by Islamist terrorists. It will go to an individual working toward the spread of rational and logical discourse, and recognize creative and heroic individuals who have persisted, despite hurdles, in their work to promote science, logic and humane ideas.

The Clarence Darrow Award is a work of art, a bronze statuette that is a miniature version of the 7-foot-tall statue of Clarence Darrow created for FFRF by sculptor Zenos Frudakis now standing on the lawn of the Rhea County Courthouse in Dayton, Tenn., where the Scopes trial took place. The award is an all-purpose award to recognize civil libertarians, those who promote science and evolution, and/or freethought, as Darrow advocated.

An award celebrating “plain speaking” on the shortcomings of religion by public figures was inaugurated by the Freedom From Religion Foundation in 1999.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation has introduced its new Forward Award.

The Freethinker of the Year award is presented annually by the Freedom From Religion Foundation to recognize defenders of the constitutional principle of separation of church and state. Pictured: 2002 Freethinker of the Year Michael Newdow, M.D. Photo by Brent Nicastro.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation, to recognize the special contributions of women to freethought and the battle to keep state and church separate, bestows a "Freethought Heroine Award" at many of its national conventions. Pictured: Charline Kirkpatrick Kotula, in whose memory some of the "heroine" awards were named.

This award is endowed by FFRF member and state/church activist Henry Zumach, who was a plaintiff in FFRF's second iteration of a lawsuit against a Ten Commandments monument in a public park in La Crosse, Wis.

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Following the Supreme Court’s injudicious decision “blessing” sectarian prayer, FFRF awards atheists, seculars and other freethinkers who ask for equal time to give secular invocations.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation, in addition to the above awards, has tailored special recognition awards for deserving supporters of freethought or the separation of church and state.

FFRF has recognized student activists for many years, with scholarships funded by generous FFRF members. From 1997–2007, for example, Richard Mole generously endowed an annual student activist award, in memory of Ruth (“Dixie”) Jokinen. Since 2009, a student activist award has been funded through a bequest by Catherine Fahringer and replenished by friends. Donors have included the late Alan Snyder, and an Oregon couple, who are now endowing the Thomas Jefferson Youth Activist Award of $2,000, among several other individuals creating student activist awards. In 2014, FFRF created the Cliff Richards Memorial Student Activist Endowment, after he stipulated the use in his bequest. Other awards funded by members, typically of $1,000 each, include the “Strong Backbone” award, the Robert G. Ingersoll scholarship, the Percy Bysshe Shelley scholarship, the Al Luneman Student Activist scholarship, and two $5,000 awards for really major activism: The Beverly and Richard Hermsen Student Activist scholarship and the “Out of God’s Closet” Diane and Stephen Uhl Memorial scholarship. We thank our donors for helping FFRF reward the next generation of freethinkers!   Catherine Fahringer, Cliff Richards