The San Francisco Chronicle reports that Anglican Archbishop emeritus of South Africa, Desmond Tutu will be among those receiving the US Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama.
Desmond Tutu is an Anglican Archbishop emeritus who was a leading anti-apartheid activist in South Africa. Widely regarded as “South Africa’s moral conscience,” he served as the General Secretary of the South African Council of Churches (SACC) from 1978 – 1985, where he led a formidable crusade in support of justice and racial reconciliation in South Africa. He received a Nobel Peace Prize for his work through SACC in 1984. Tutu was elected Archbishop of Cape Town in 1986, and the Chair of the South Africa Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 1995. He retired as Archbishop in 1996 and is currently Chair of The Elders.
Others named for the medal are:
Billy Jean King, tennis great who helped champion gender equality issues not only in sports, but in all areas of public life.
Rev. Joseph Lowery, U.S. civil rights leader who helped organize the Montgomery bus boycott after Rosa Parks was denied a seat; he later co-founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Joe Medicine Crow, native American historian, the last living Plains Indian war chief and “the last person alive to have received direct oral testimony from a participant in the Battle of the Little Bighorn.”
Harvey Milk, pioneer of the modern LGBT movement, as one of the first openly gay elected officials in the United States. He was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977 and was assassinated, along with Mayor George Moscone, by Dan White, a former supervisor in 1978.
Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman ever to sit on the United States Supreme Court.
Sidney Poitier, groundbreaking African American actor and the first to be nominated and win a Best Actor Academy Award.
Chita Rivera, powerhouse two-time Tony Award-winning actress, singer, and dancer who made her fame as Anita in “West Side Story,” and has broken barriers for Latinos in a lifetime of outstanding work.
Mary Robinson, the first female President of Ireland and the former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Janet Davison Rowley M.D., geneticist, the first scientist to identify a chromosomal translocation as the cause of leukemia and other cancers.
Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel Peace Prize winner and economist who pioneered the use of “micro-loans” in anti-poverty campaigns to provide life-changing credit which has become the foundation of small businesses for millions of poor individuals without collateral.
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