BIDEN TO PRESENT MEDAL OF FREEDOM TO BILES, 16 OTHERS
Recipients include advocates for civil rights, social justice
President Joe Biden announced Friday that he will present the Presidential Medal of Freedom next week to 17 leaders from the worlds of politics, civil rights, sports, business, education and entertainment, including Olympic gymnast Simone Biles, actor Denzel Washington and the first American to receive a COVID-19 vaccine.
The recipients, the first of his presidency, include a variety of barrier-breaking figures familiar to many Americans as well as prominent political veterans Biden has known over the years. The list includes three posthumous award recipients: Steve Jobs, pioneering cofounder of Apple; John McCain, longtime Republican senator and two-time presidential candidate; and Richard Trumka, AFL-CIO president and Democratic power broker.
“These 17 Americans demonstrate the power of possibilities and embody the soul of the nation — hard work, perseverance and faith,” a White House statement said.
Biden will honor the recipients Thursday at the White House. The medal is the nation’s highest civilian award.
Biden’s list includes another prominent former Republican senator, Alan Simpson of Wyoming, a popular wisecracking moderate who worked across the aisle even as he zinged politicians and
journalists with his sharp wit. Former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., who was grievously injured during a mass shooting and became a leading voice for gun control, will also be honored.
Biden singled out several well-known civil rights leaders, including Diane Nash, a founder of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and close ally of Martin Luther King Jr.; Fred Gray, a lawyer for King, Rosa Parks and others, and later one of the first Black members of the Alabama Legislature since Reconstruction; and Raúl Yzaguirre, who led the National Council of La Raza, a Latino advocacy organization, for 30 years.
In addition to Biles, the most decorated American gymnast in history with 32 Olympic and World Championship medals, a medal will go to Megan Rapinoe, another Olympian and a twotime Women’s World Cup champion. Biles has become a vocal advocate for mental health, foster children and victims of sexual assault, while Rapinoe has spoken
out for gender pay equality, racial justice and gay rights.
Biden singled out others who overcame obstacles, including Brig. Gen. Wilma Vaught, one of the few early women to serve as a general in the American military; and Julieta Garcia, former president of the University of Texas at Brownsville and the first Hispanic woman to lead an American college. He will also honor Sandra Lindsay, a New York critical-care nurse who was the first American vaccinated for the coronavirus outside clinical trials.
The other recipients are Sister Simone Campbell, a leading Catholic social justice advocate; the Rev. Alexander Karloutsos, former vicar general of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, who has counseled multiple presidents; and Khizr Khan, the Gold Star father of a soldier killed in Iraq whose criticism of Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign made him a hero of Democrats.