WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Friday will award 19 high-profile politicians, activists and others the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which is the country’s highest civilian honor, the White House announced.
The list of recipients includes an award-winning actor, Olympians and a former vice president.
“President Biden often says there is nothing beyond our capacity when we act together,” the White House said in a news release announcing the recipients. “These nineteen Americans built teams, coalitions, movements, organizations, and businesses that shaped America for the better.”
Biden will present the awards at the White House.
The recipients include political powerhouses such as Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., whose House speakership overlapped with the first two years of Biden’s presidency; former Vice President Al Gore, also a Democrat; Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., whose 2020 endorsement of Biden is often credited for delivering a major boost to his campaign; and Elizabeth Dole, a former Republican senator from North Carolina and advocate for military caregivers who was the secretary of both labor and transportation.
The list also features several recipients who have broken barriers in their fields, including actor Michelle Yeoh, the first person of Asian descent to win the best actress Oscar; Ellen Ochoa, the first Hispanic woman to travel to space; and Jim Thorpe, the first Native American to win an Olympic gold medal. Record-breaking Olympic swimmer Katie Ledecky, who has won seven Olympic gold medals, also made the list.
Thorpe, who died in 1953; Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., who died in 2013; and civil rights leader Medgar Evers, who was assassinated in 1963, will be honored posthumously.
The recipients “are the pinnacle of leadership in their fields,” the White House said in the statement.
“They consistently demonstrated over their careers the power of community, hard work, and service,” it added.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
