On Monday evening, June 10, ICNY supporters gather to celebrate “The Courage of Conviction – Then & Now” and to honor five distinguished individuals, including Bill Moyers, Host, PBS Bill Moyers Journal.
Bill Moyers has been recognized as one of the unique voices of our time. His career in broadcast journalism has spanned four decades and earned him more than 35 Emmy Awards, nine Peabody Awards, two Alfred I. DuPont Columbia University Awards, the National Humanities Medal from the NationalEndowment for the Humanities, the PEN USA Courageous Advocacy Award, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, and an Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from the American Film Institute.
Among his many interests as a journalist Moyers has always accorded religion a prominent role. He and his wife and creative partner Judith Davidson Moyers have been responsible for such acclaimed series as Genesis: A Living Conversation, which explored the contemporary relevance of the ageless stories from the Bible’s epic first book; Faith and Reason, a collection of conversations on how we can live together in a world in which religion “is poison to some and salvation to others”; The Wisdom of Faith with Huston Smith, which examined in depth the philosophical and spiritual roots of the world’s great religions; and the documentary Amazing Grace, the story of one of the most enduring hymns in the English language, featuring such performers as Judy Collins, country music star Johnny Cash, the opera diva Jessye Norman, folk singer Jean Ritchie, and the Boys Choir of Harlem.
Bill and Judith also partnered in the production of such path-breaking public television series as Healing and the Mind, On Our Own Term –Moyers on Death and Dying, Becoming American: The Chinese Experience, Close to Home –Moyers on Addiction and Recovery, America’s First River – The Story of the Hudson, Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth, World of Ideas, The Language of Life and the weekly television series NOW with Bill Moyers (2002-2004)and Bill Moyers Journal (2007-2010). They are currently producing the weekly public affairs series Moyers & Company. Bill Moyers graduated from the University of Texas, studied at New College Divinity School at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, and received his Master of Divinity from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Texas. His interest in politics and journalism took him to Washington, where he worked as a liaison between John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson in 1960, became a founding organizer of the Peace Corps, its first deputy director, and served as Special Assistant to President Lyndon B. Johnson. He left Washington early in l967 to become publisher of the daily newspaper Newsday on Long Island and joined the Public Broadcasting Service in l971. He also served as Senior Correspondent for the acclaimed CBS documentary series CBS Reports founded by Edward R. Murrow and for five years was senior news analyst of the CBS Evening News.
Bill and Judith Moyers have been married 58 years and have three grown children and five grandchildren. They reside in New York City.
In this video produced recently by Moyers and Company, Bill shares examples of striking extremes of wealth and poverty across the United States:
ICNY cordially invites you to join us in honoring Bill Moyers on June 10. Other JMP awardees on June 10 will be:
- Sister Pat Farrell, OSF, Vice President, Sisters of St. Francis of Dubuque & Past President, Leadership Conference of Women Religious
- Rev. Dr. C. T. Vivian, Veteran Civil Rights Activist & Colleague of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
- Judith Davidson Moyers, CEO, Public Affairs Television
- Russell Simmons, Chairman, Foundation for Ethnic Understanding
