January 5, 2025
Denzel Washington, Magic Johnson, And Fannie Lou Hamer Honored With Presidential Medal Of Freedom By Biden
In all, 19 were given the highest honor that can be awarded to a civilian in the United States.
On Jan. 4, actor Denzel Washington, NBA Hall of Famer Earvin “Magic” Johnson, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, public science educator Bill Nye, and civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer, among others, were awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest honor that can be awarded to a civilian in the United States.
Conservatives criticized Biden for selecting former first lady and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and investor and philanthropist George Soros, a major Democrat Party donor, as medal recipients.
According to The New York Times, among the notable posthumous awardees was Hamer, a Mississippi civil rights activist who pushed the Democratic Party to address Black voters’ conditions in the Jim Crow South.
Hamer’s niece by marriage, Doris Hamer Richardson, accepted the honor on behalf of Hamer’s family.
“I have so many wonderful memories of Aunt Fannie Lou,” Hamer Richardson told Mississippi Today. “It’s an amazing feeling to be here in D.C. to honor her. And I’m so grateful that she is being recognized with this award and that history continues to be made in her name.”
Another niece of Hamer’s and the producer of a 2023 PBS documentary about Hamer, “Fannie Lou Hamer’s America,” Monica Land, shared a statement about Hamer and her film with Mississippi Today.
“It’s overwhelming to see Aunt Fannie Lou recognized for her sacrifices on behalf of others to this magnitude,” Land said. “And this is why our film about her life is so important. It allows a new and younger generation to get to know her and appreciate the freedoms they have because of her.”
According to a White House press release announcing the 19 recipients of the award, they have all made “exemplary contributions to the prosperity, values, or security of the United States, world peace, or other significant societal, public or private endeavors.”
The press release continued, “These nineteen individuals are great leaders who have made America and the world a better place. They are great leaders because they are good people who have made extraordinary contributions to their country and the world.”
Magic Johnson tweeted of his honor, “I am so humbled and overwhelmed with emotion right now. It is an absolute honor and privilege that President Joe Biden selected me for the esteemed Presidential Medal of Freedom award. Never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined that this kid from Lansing, MI would one day grow up and receive one of the highest civilian awards of the United States…I want to express my heartfelt gratitude to President Biden for his leadership and for recognizing the contributions of so many who are working to make a difference in our nation, especially inner cities of America and across the world.”
Robert F. Kennedy, who also received a posthumous award, stands in stark contrast to his son, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a third-party candidate during the 2024 presidential election. He is now Donald Trump’s nominee for the Department of Health and Human Services.
The elder Robert Kennedy was a Democrat whose star in American politics rose alongside his brother, President John F. Kennedy. Like his brother, he was largely viewed as a leader who was sympathetic to the freedom struggle of Black Americans during the 1960s. Robert Kennedy served as United States attorney general.
Kennedy eventually became a trusted advocate for the civil rights movement and built a broad base of poor and middle-class Black Americans, Latinx Americans, Catholics, and young voters under JFK.
Like JFK’s assassination in 1963, Robert Kennedy’s 1968 assassination has also been the subject of several conspiracy theories.
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