Harry Edwards, Denise DeBartolo York honored with Booker award

YOUNGSTOWN

The Ohio Nonviolence Week Committee has selected Harry Edwards as its national recipient of the Simeon Booker Award for Courage and Denise DeBartolo York as its local winner.

The awards are given to people who exhibit the courage and tenacity of Booker, a Youngstown native who became the first African-American reporter for the Washington Post and wrote about the civil rights movement for Jet magazine. The awards are part of the events during Nonviolence Week, Oct. 6-12.

For more than 50 years, Edwards has been a counselor for athletes in the areas of human rights, social justice and activism in athletics. He is currently a consultant for the San Francisco 49ers and the Golden State Warriors.

DeBartolo York, who owns the 49ers, is a longtime supporter of women and minorities in the Mahoning Valley and in San Francisco.