Ten years ago today, the most courageous lady I’ve ever known in politics, Beth Rickey, died alone and broke, 1,000 miles from her Lafayette, La., home. This week, 1,300 miles in the other direction from Lafayette, Bard College’s Center for the Study of Hate is announcing an award named in Beth’s honor. It is a fitting tribute indeed, and a timely one.

As I wrote when she died a decade ago, Beth from 1989-91 had been a singular leader in the effort to block neo-Nazi David Duke from establishing a position of real political power in Louisiana. People forget now that with three weeks to go in the Bayou State’s governor’s race, Duke was polling within the margin of error, with momentum on his side. As it was, even in what turned into a landslide loss, Duke received a 55% majority of the state’s white vote.