July 6, 2021

FIRST BLACK MAN OF ANY NATION TO SAIL AROUND THE WORLD ALONE VIA CAPE HORN TO BE INDUCTED INTO THE HALL OF FAME 

Captain William "Bill" Pinkney, a Chicago native living in Fajardo, Puerto Rico will be inducted into the National Sailing Hall of Fame in Newport, Rhode Island on October 16, 2021.

The announcement was made today by the President of the National Sailing Hall of Fame Museum that in addition to the induction Pinkney will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award which has only been awarded a few times. Captain Bill will join such notables as America's Cup winners Ted Turner and Dennis Conners along with Joshua Slocum, the first man to sail around the world solo.   In addition to his many accomplishments are a Peabody Award winning documentary about his sail and he has written a children’s book used nationwide as a Basel reader for first graders, as well as an autobiography that Maya Angelou called: "...a travel book of the first order." As expedition leader of the Middle Passage Institute's "Voyages Home" project he took teachers to Brazil and West Africa to create a five part video series distributed by Great Plains National, a division of the University of Nebraska.   As the first Master of the Freedom Schooner AMISTAD, he has traveled the East and Gulf coasts, England, Portugal, Sierra Leone, Senegal and Cuba telling the story of the revolt of African captives that sparked the first Human Rights case in the U.S Supreme Court.

This induction will bring diversity to the upper level of organized sailing and a broader view of African-Americans at sea both recreational and professional over the course of the history of America as a maritime nation.

For more information: https://nshof.org/inductees/pinkney-william/