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Jet, July 3, 1995

Four talented Black Americans are among 24 recipients of the Chicago-based John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellowship Awards.

Chosen on the basis of skill, creativity and dedication to their chosen professions, the winners will receive from $150,000 to $375,000 over five years or $30,000 to $75,000 annually, depending on the recipients' ages.

MacArthur Fellows are free to use the money any way they wish. This year's recipients and the amounts they will receive are:

Virginia Hamilton, writer of children's literature, whose $350,000 grant is the largest of 1995. Hamilton, 59, the author of 33 books in the last 28 years, weaves Black folk tales into her work. Her elaborately illustrated book called Her Stories: African American Folktales, Fairy Tales and True Tales, is scheduled for release this fall.

Hamilton told Jet she hasn't had time to think about what she'll do with the money, but added her two adult children-daughter Leigh, an opera singer, and son Jaime Levi, a singer who has his own band-will more than likely get their share.

Dr. Donald Hopkins, a doctor in the public health arena. Hopkins, 53, is also a consultant to the Carter Center Global 2000 Program. The Chicago resident won $320,000.

Hopkins, who has devoted his career to eradicating preventable diseases and was a member of the team that eliminated smallpox in 1977, said he too was not certain what he will do with the money. He did say, however, that it will be put to "productive use."

Hopkins currently is leading an effort to eradicate Guinea Worm disease, a debilitating and preventable infection that afflicts residents of Africa and Asia.

Octavia Butler, an independent writer who brings elements of Africa and African-American spiritualism to her works. Butler, 48, a $295,000 grant winner, also has received both the Hugo Award and the Nebula Award, the two most coveted honors in the science fiction community.

Butler told Jet she will use the money to continue writing her books, the latest of which is Parable of the Talents, the sequel to her 1993 book Parable of the Sower.

Bryan Stevenson, executive director of the Alabama Capital Representation Resource Center, won $230,000.

Stevenson, 35, is an attorney and human rights activist who has devoted his career to fighting the death penalty. His efforts have succeeded in reversing a number of death penalties, saving the lives of several innocent people.

Stevenson will use the money to start a new project called the Equal Justice Initiative, which will litigate race and poverty issues in the criminal justice system.