Award Webby Award

MacArthur Fellowship (1981)

National Humanities Medal (1998)

American Academy of Arts and Letters (Literature ∙ 1999)

American Philosophical Society (1995)

American Academy of Arts & Sciences (1993)

American Antiquarian Society (1989)

British Academy (Corresponding Fellow, 2021)

Jefferson Lecture (2002)

Vilcek Prize for Excellence in Literary Scholarship (2025)

Barry Prize (2024)

Spingarn Medal (2024)

PEN America Audible Literary Service Award (2021)

PBS Beacon Award (2021)

Historical Society of Pennsylvania Founders Award (2021)

Don M. Randel Award (2021)

National Institute of Social Sciences Gold Medal (2021)

Boston Public Library Literary Light Award (2022)

Peabody Award (2013)

NAACP Image Award (2013)

Carl Sandburg Literary Award (2004)

National World War Two Museum American Spirit Award (2021)

Muhammad Ali Voice of Humanity Award (2020)

Louis Stokes Community Visionary Award (2020)

Chicago Tribune Literary Award (2019)

Anne Izard Storytellers' Choice Award (2019)

Association for the Study of African American Life and History Inaugural Luminary Award (2021)

Alfred I. duPont–Columbia University Award (2015, 2020)

Anisfield-Wolf Book Award (1989)

Golden Plate Award, Academy of Achievement (1995)

American Book Award (1989)

Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Fellowship (1973)

Phi Beta Kappa (1972)

Orwell Prize (2007)

Amnesty National Press Award (2006)