Claudia Johnson is a nationally recognized advocate for free speech and social justice. In 1993 she was honored with the inaugural PEN/Newman’s Own First Amendment Award, presented by Paul Newman, for her “extraordinary efforts to restore banned literary classics to Florida classrooms”—and again in the 2022 “PEN America at 100: A Century of Defending the Written Word” exhibition at the New York Historical Society. She was also awarded the Giraffe Heroes Commendation, “awarded to people who stick their necks out for the common good.” And she continues to fight book banning, recently helping to reinstate banned books in Virginia Beach classrooms and libraries.