Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, philanthropist George Soros and actor and director Denzel Washington will receive the nation’s highest civilian honor at a White House ceremony on Saturday, the Associated Press reported.
President Joe Biden will award the Presidential Medal of Freedom to 19 of the most famous names in politics, sports, entertainment, civil rights, LGBTQ+ advocacy and science.
The White House said the recipients had made “exemplary contributions to the prosperity, values, or security of the United States, to world peace, or to other significant social, public, or private endeavors.”
Four medals will be awarded posthumously.
It will be awarded by Fannie Lou Hamer, who founded the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party and laid the groundwork for the Voting Rights Act of 1965, to former Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, George W. Romney, who also served as Michigan governor and Secretary of State housing and urban development and Ash Carter, former Secretary of Defense.
Kennedy is the father of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services.
Romney is the father of former Utah Republican Senator Mitt Romney, one of Trump’s fiercest conservative critics.
Major philanthropists who have received the award include Spanish-American chef José Andrés, whose charity World Central Kitchen has become one of the world’s most recognized food aid organizations, and Paul David Hewson, better known as Bono, frontman of the rock group U2 and social justice activist.
Notable sports and entertainment stars include professional soccer player Lionel Messi, retired Los Angeles Lakers basketball legend and businessman Earvin Magic Johnson, actor Michael J. Fox, who is an outspoken advocate for Parkinson’s research and development, and William Sanford Nye, known to generations of students as “Bill Nye, the science guy”.
Other honorees include conservationist Jane Goodall, longtime Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour, American fashion designer Ralph Lauren, American Film Institute founder George Stevens Jr., entrepreneur and LGBTQ+ activist Tim Gill and David Rubenstein, co-founder of global investment firm The Carlyle Group.
Last year, Biden awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to 19 people, including the late Medgar Evers, House Speaker Emeritus Nancy Pelosi, Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina and actress Michelle Yeoh.
(Vijesti.ba)
