In 1951 the Lasker Award was given Alcoholics Anonymous. The citation reads

in part as follows:

"The American Public Health Association presents a Lasker Group Award for

1951 to Alcoholics Anonymous in recognition of its unique and highly

successful approach to that age-old public health and social problem,

alcoholism ... In emphasizing alcoholism as an illness, the social stigma

associated with this condition is being blotted out ... Historians may one

day recognize Alcoholics Anonymous to have been a great venture in

socialpioneering which forged a new instrument for social action; a new

therapy based on the kinship of common suffering; one having a vast

potential for the myriad other ills of mankind."