By DENIKA DIXON
Contributing Writer
Sister Honora Kinney, former professor and alumna of The College of Saint Rose took home the 2018 25th Annual Jim Perry Progressive Leadership Award this year. The award is given to leaders who are committed to community activism and social change.
Jim Perry was a founding member of the Capital District Citizen Action. Citizen Action of New York is a grassroots membership organization that takes on social justice issues such as racism, affordable health care, and a more progressive tax system, etc.
“We look for opportunities to accomplish big changes-not small, incremental reforms,” said Mark Emanation, a community organizer with Citizen Action.
Perry was also the president of the Eleanor Roosevelt Democratic Club from 1985-1988. The award recognizes extraordinary people in his honor. This year’s award ceremony was held at Desmond Hotel in early October.
Sister Honora Kinney was among four others to receive an award. The Lifetime Achievement award went to Karen Schariff. The four recipients of the Perry Award were Daquetta Jones, Doug Bullock, HTC Hilton Albany Hotel workers, and Kinney.
“I had a very fine time on Thursday night. I saw many old friends, heard inspiring stories about courage and persistence and got a warm hug from congressman Paul Tonko,” Kinney said in an email.
Kinney is not the average activist one would expect to see outside picketing. She is 79-years-old, but that does not stop her from being right there in the action. She was born and raised in Utica, about 95 miles west of Albany, and earned her bachelor’s in Social Studies and Secondary Ed from Saint Rose and her master’s from Syracuse University. Soon after, she joined the Sisters of Saint Joseph of Carondelet and started teaching at Saint Rose.
Growing up she was always a conservative even though her father was active in the postal clerks union and most of her family were Democrats. This was the point in her life where she had an epiphany.
“I became increasingly disillusioned with the Vietnam War, and the research for my dissertation on the American Non-Communist Left in the 1920’s deepened my awareness of racism, imperialism and the exploitation of workers and led me to admire the people who fought these evils,” said Kinney.
After that she became more invested in the community and fighting for human rights. She joined the Pledge of Resistance in 1985 and was arrested for sitting in at a Federal Building. Her group refused to go before the magistrate and they were tried in a federal trial. They plead not guilty by reason of necessity but were fined and convicted. She received the Perry award for all the hard work she has committed to as an activist for social justice with the Poor People’s Campaign and Citizen Action.
“When the New Poor People’s Campaign came to Albany, I was an enthusiastic participant. The evils of racism, poverty, militarism, and ecological devastation are linked and need to be fought together. We desperately need a ‘revolution of values’ lead us away from treating people as things,” she said in an interview.
When she is not out protesting, Kinney can be found working part time in the Saint Rose Neil Hellman Library. She is glad that this gives her flexible hours so that when other people may not be able to go to certain events during the day because they are working, she can. Change doesn’t just happen overnight. It takes time and people who are passionate and fearless about making it happen.
“You have to push back,” said Kinney.
