Biden to award the Presidential Medal of Freedom to 19 politicians, activists, athletes and extra
WASHINGTON — Clarence B. Jones says he thought a prankster was on the road when he answered the phone and heard the particular person on the opposite finish say they had been calling from the White Home.
“I stated, ‘Is that this a joke or is that this severe?’” Jones recalled. The caller swore they had been severe and was calling with the information that President Joe Biden wished to acknowledge Jones with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor.
Jones, 93, will probably be honored for his activism in the course of the Civil Rights Motion. He is a lawyer who supplied authorized counsel to Martin Luther King Jr. and helped write the opening paragraphs of the “I Have a Dream” speech that King delivered on the Lincoln Memorial on the 1963 March on Washington.
Jones is amongst a various group of 19 people to be honored Friday by the Democratic president for making what the White Home stated are “exemplary contributions to the prosperity, values, or safety of the USA, world peace, or different vital societal, public or personal endeavors.”
The ten males and 9 ladies hail from the worlds of politics, sports activities, leisure, civil rights and LGBTQ+ advocacy, science and faith. Three medals will probably be awarded posthumously.
“These nineteen Individuals constructed groups, coalitions, actions, organizations, and companies that formed America for the higher,” the announcement from the White Home stated. “They’re the top of management of their fields. They constantly demonstrated over their careers the facility of group, exhausting work, and science.”
Seven politicians are among the many recipients: former New York mayor and philanthropist Michael Bloomberg, Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., former Sen. Elizabeth Dole, local weather activist and former Vice President Al Gore, Biden’s former local weather envoy John Kerry, former Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., who died in 2013, and former Home Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.
Clyburn’s endorsement of his longtime pal Biden within the 2020 Democratic presidential major is credited with serving to Biden rating a thundering win in South Carolina that helped energy him to his social gathering’s nomination and in the end the White Home. Bloomberg mounted a short-lived bid for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.
Along with representing North Carolina within the Senate, Dole, who’s a Republican, additionally served as transportation secretary and labor secretary and was president of the American Pink Cross. She at present leads a basis supporting army caregivers.
Pelosi is the primary and solely lady ever elected to the speaker’s publish, placing her second within the line of succession to the presidency.
Medgar Evers will obtain posthumous recognition for his work greater than six many years in the past combating segregation in Mississippi within the Sixties because the NAACP’s first area officer within the state. He was 37 when he was fatally shot within the driveway of his dwelling in June 1963.
Michelle Yeoh made historical past final 12 months by changing into the primary Asian lady to win an Academy Award for greatest actress for her efficiency in “ All the things, In all places All at As soon as.”
Jim Thorpe, who died in 1953, was the primary Native American to win an Olympic gold medal for the USA.
Judy Shepard co-founded the Matthew Shepard Basis, named after her son, a homosexual 21-year-old College of Wyoming pupil who died in 1998 after he was crushed and tied to a fence.
Jones stated he felt “very touched” after he digested what the caller had stated.
“I am 93 years outdated with some well being challenges, however I awoke this morning due to the grace of God,” he advised The Related Press in a phone interview Thursday. “I am wanting ahead to regardless of the White Home would love for me to do.”
The opposite medal recipients are:
— Gregory Boyle, a Jesuit Catholic priest who based and runs Homeboy Industries, a gang-intervention and rehabilitation program.
— Phil Donahue, a journalist and former daytime TV talk-show host.
— Katie Ledecky, essentially the most adorned feminine swimmer in historical past.
— Opal Lee, an activist who’s greatest identified for pushing to make Juneteenth a federal vacation. Biden did so in 2021.
— Ellen Ochoa, the primary Hispanic lady in house and the second feminine director of NASA’s Johnson Area Heart.
— Jane Rigby, an astronomer who’s chief scientist of the world’s strongest telescope. She grew up in Delaware, Biden’s dwelling state.
— Teresa Romero, president of the United Farm Staff and the primary Hispanic lady to steer a nationwide union within the U.S. The union has endorsed Biden’s reelection bid and backed him in 2020.
In 2022, Biden offered the Presidential Medal of Freedom to 17 individuals, together with gymnast Simone Biles, the late Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and gun-control advocate Gabby Giffords.
Biden additionally is aware of the way it feels to obtain the medal. As president, Barack Obama offered Biden, his vice chairman, with the medal per week earlier than their administration resulted in 2017.
