Person

Philip Dray

The 2003 Robert F. Kennedy Book Award was given to Philip Dray for At the Hands of a Person Unknown: The Lynching of Black America and Samantha Power for A Problem From Hell: America and the Age of Genocide. In At the Hands of a Person Unknown, Dray examines one of the ugliest chapters in American history: the lynching of black Americans that was rampant from the late nineteenth through the mid-twentieth centuries.

Philip Dray is an independent author and journalist whose books include Capitol Men and There Is Power In a Union. He has received the Southern Book Critics Circle Award and has been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.

New year, new us. Same mission.

Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights is rebranding to honor the legacy of our founder and hero, Mrs. Ethel Skakel Kennedy. From now on, we will proudly be known as the Robert & Ethel Kennedy Human Rights Center

While our name is changing, our mission and work remain the same. We will continue to fight injustice, advance human rights, and hold governments accountable around the world in 2026 and beyond.