NCCU Law alumnus the Honorable H.M. “Mickey” Michaux Jr. ’64 received the state’s highest civilian honor on Tuesday, November 15. The North Carolina Awards were presented to six distinguished North Carolinians by Governor Roy Cooper at the North Carolina Museum of Art.
Michaux has spent more than 50 years as an activist, businessman and politician. He served in the N.C. House of Representatives from 1973–1977 and later from 1983–2019. His time in the state House made him the longest-serving member of the body. In 2020, at age 89, he was appointed to temporarily fill a seat in the N.C. Senate.
Michaux was instrumental in preparing multiple state budgets as senior House Appropriations Committee chair and held numerous leadership positions in the House. Michaux was appointed in 1977 to serve as a U.S. attorney, becoming the first African American to serve in that role in the South since Reconstruction.
The award was created by the General Assembly in 1961 to recognize significant contributions to the state and nation in the fields of fine arts, literature, public service and science.
