17 Receive Presidential Medal of Freedom at White House Ceremony
The White House said the President presents medals to individuals who have had significant cultural impacts or made significant contributions to the country or the world.
By Stacy M. Brown
NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent
@StacyBrownMedia
Diane Nash, founding member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee who organized some of the most important civil rights campaigns of the 20th century., receives Medal of Freedom from President Joe Biden on July 7, 2022/Mark Mahoney, Dream In Color Photography
Sandra Lindsay is a New York critical care nurse who served on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic response. /Mark Mahoney, Dream in Color Photography
Fred Gray, represented Rosa Parks, the NAACP, and Martin Luther King, who called him “the chief counsel for the protest movement.”/Mark Mahoney, Dream in Color Photography
A reported bout with Covid kept actor Denzel Washington from attending the Presidential Medal of Freedom ceremony at the White House on Thursday, but 16 others, including Olympic Champion Simone Biles, U.S. soccer player Megan Rapinoe, and Khazir Khan, joined President Joe Biden to accept their respective honors.
Washington, Khan, Rapinoe, and Sandra Lindsay each received the medals – the country’s highest civilian honor.
“The Fourth of July week reminds us of what brought us together long ago and still binds us – binds us at our best, what we strive for,” Biden remarked during the ceremony.
“We the people, doing what we can to ensure that the idea of America, the cause of freedom, shines like the sun to light up the future of the world,” Biden stated.
McCain, who served alongside Biden in the U.S. House and Senate, received his award posthumously, as did Apple Founder Steve Jobs and AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka.
Other medal recipients were former Sen. Alan Simpson, R-Wyo., an advocate of campaign finance reform and marriage equality; Sister Simone Campbell, an advocate for progressive issues; Julieta García, the first Hispanic woman to serve as President of a U.S. college; Fred Gray, one of the first Black members of the Alabama Legislature since Reconstruction; the Rev. Alexander Karloutsos, former vicar-general of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America; Diane Nash, a founding member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee who worked with Martin Luther King Jr.; Wilma Vaught, an Air Force brigadier general and one of the most decorated women in the history of the U.S. military; and Raúl Yzaguirre, a civil rights advocate who was the CEO and President of the National Council of La Raza for 30 years.
The White House said the President presents medals to individuals who have had significant cultural impacts or made significant contributions to the country or the world.
