Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Democratic philanthropist George Soros and actor and director Denzel Washington can be honored with the nation's highest civilian honor at a ceremony on the White House on Saturday.
President Joe Biden will award the Presidential Medal of Freedom to 19 of essentially the most celebrated names in politics, sports, entertainment, civil rights, LGBTQ+ advocacy and academia.
The White House said the recipients have made “exemplary contributions to the prosperity, values or security of the United States, to world peace, or to other significant societal, public or private endeavors.”
Four medals can be awarded posthumously. They go to Fannie Lou Hamer, who founded the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party and laid the muse for the Voting Rights Act of 1965; former Attorney General and Senator Robert F. Kennedy; George W. Romney, who served as each governor of Michigan and secretary of housing and concrete development; and Ash Carter, a former defense secretary.
Kennedy is the daddy of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President-elect Donald Trump's nominee for Health and Human Services secretary. Romney is the daddy of former Utah Republican Senator Mitt Romney, considered one of Trump's harshest conservative critics.
Major philanthropists receiving the award include Spanish-American chef José Andrés, whose charity World Central Kitchen has turn into considered one of the world's most recognized food relief organizations, and Bono, the frontman of the rock band U2 and a social justice activist.
Recognized sports and entertainment stars include skilled soccer player Lionel Messi; retired Los Angeles Lakers basketball legend and businessman Earvin “Magic” Johnson; actor Michael J. Fox, a powerful advocate for the research and development of Parkinson's disease; and William Sanford Nye, known to generations of scholars as “Bill Nye the Scientist.”
Other honorees include conservationist Jane Goodall; longtime editor-in-chief of Vogue Magazine, Anna Wintour; American dressmaker Ralph Lauren; American Film Institute founder George Stevens Jr.; entrepreneur and LGBTQ+ activist Tim Gill; and David Rubenstein, co-founder of world investment firm The Carlyle Group.
Last yr, Biden awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to 19 people, including the late Medgar Evers, Speaker Emeritus of the House Nancy Pelosi, Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina and actress Michelle Yeoh.
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