Editing Barbara Hendricks (section)

==Humanitarian work==
[[File:José Van Dam, B.Hendrickx.jpg|thumb|[[José van Dam]] and Barbara Hendricks, Brussels 2006]]
Hendricks cites her upbringing in [[Jim Crow laws|Jim Crow-Era]] Arkansas as an inspiration for her extensive activist and humanitarian work.<ref name=":1" />

Hendricks was first appointed as a [[United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees|UNHCR]] [[Goodwill ambassador|Goodwill Ambassador]] in 1987, and has continued to serve up to the present, making her the longest-serving UN Goodwill Ambassador. She was named named Honorary Lifetime Goodwill Ambassador in 2002, and continues to be the only person who has received that title. In this capacity, she has traveled widely across Africa, Asia, and Europe, and performed at several [[List of Nansen Refugee Award recipients|Nansen Refugee Award]] ceremonies.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Barbara Hendricks |url=https://www.unhcr.org/us/prominent-supporters/barbara-hendricks |access-date=2025-04-11 |website=UNHCR US |language=en-us}}</ref>

In 1991 and 1993 Hendricks gave two concerts in the war-torn [[Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia|formerly Yugoslavian]] cities of [[Dubrovnik]] and [[Sarajevo]]. She performed in Sarajevo  with the Sarajevo Opera Chorus and jazz musician [[Sinan Alimanović]]. In 1998 she founded the Barbara Hendricks Foundation for Peace and Reconciliation, which seeks to facilitate reconciliation where conflicts have already occurred.

Since 2000, Hendricks has been a member of the Council of the Foundation for the Refugee Education Trust (RET). The RET is dedicated to post-primary education of refugee youth all over the world.

In 2001 she performed at the [[Nobel Prize]] ceremony in Oslo at the invitation of [[Nobel Peace Prize]] Laureate [[Kofi Annan]]. In May 2002, she performed at the [[East Timor]] Independence Day Ceremony.