WASHINGTON – Clarence B. Jones says he thought a prankster was on the line when he answered the phone and heard the person on the other end say they were calling from the White House.
“I said, ‘Is this a joke or is this serious?'” Jones recalled. The caller swore he was serious and was calling with the news that President Joe Biden wanted to recognize Jones with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civil authority in the country.
Jones, 93, will be honored for his activism during the Civil Rights Movement. He is a lawyer who provided legal advice to Martin Luther King Jr. and helped write the opening paragraphs of the “I Have a Dream” speech that King delivered at the Lincoln Memorial at the 1963 March on Washington.
Jones is among a diverse group of 19 individuals to be honored on Friday by the Democratic president for making what the White House said were “exemplary contributions to the prosperity, values or security of the United States, world peace or other activities significant social and public”. or private ventures.”
The 10 men and nine women come from the worlds of politics, sports, entertainment, civil rights and LGBTQ+ advocacy, science and religion. Three medals will be awarded posthumously.
“These nineteen Americans built teams, coalitions, movements, organizations, and companies that shaped America for the better,” the White House announcement read. “They are the pinnacle of leadership in their fields. They have consistently demonstrated throughout their careers the power of community, hard work and science.”
Seven politicians are among the recipients: former New York mayor and philanthropist Michael Bloomberg, Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., former Sen. Elizabeth Dole, climate activist and former Vice President Al Gore, former -Biden climate envoy John Kerry, former Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., who died in 2013, and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.
Clyburn’s endorsement of his longtime friend Biden in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary is credited with helping Biden achieve a resounding victory in South Carolina, which helped bolster him for his party’s nomination and ultimately for the White House. Bloomberg has mounted a short-lived bid for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.
In addition to representing North Carolina in the Senate, Dole, who is a Republican, also served as secretary of transportation and secretary of labor and was president of the American Red Cross. She currently leads a foundation supporting military caregivers.
Pelosi is the first and only woman elected to the position of speaker of the House, which places her second in the line of succession to the presidency.
Medgar Evers will receive posthumous recognition for his work more than six decades ago to combat segregation in Mississippi in the 1960s as the state’s first NAACP field officer. He was 37 years old when he was shot to death in his driveway in June 1963.
Michelle Yeoh made history last year by becoming the first Asian woman to win the Oscar for best actress for her performance in “Everything, Everywhere All at Once.”
Jim Thorpe, who died in 1953, was the first Native American to win an Olympic gold medal for the United States.
Judy Shepard co-founded the Matthew Shepard Foundation, named after her son, a 21-year-old gay University of Wyoming student who died in 1998 after being beaten and tied to a fence.
Jones said he felt “very emotional” after digesting what the caller had said.
“I’m 93 years old and have some health issues, but I woke up this morning thanks to the grace of God,” he told The Associated Press in a phone interview Thursday. “I look forward to whatever the White House would like me to do.”
The other medal winners are:
—Gregory Boyle, a Catholic Jesuit priest who founded and runs Homeboy Industries, a gang intervention and rehabilitation program.
— Phil Donahue, journalist and former daytime TV talk show host.
—Katie Ledecky, the most decorated swimmer in history.
– Opal Lee, an activist best known for pushing for June 19 to be a federal holiday. Biden did this in 2021.
—Ellen Ochoa, the first Hispanic woman in space and the second woman director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center.
—Jane Rigby, astronomer and chief scientist of the world’s most powerful telescope. She grew up in Delaware, Biden’s home state.
—Teresa Romero, president of the United Farm Workers and the first Hispanic woman to lead a national union in the US. The union endorsed Biden’s re-election bid and supported him in 2020.
In 2022, Biden presented the Presidential Medal of Freedom to 17 people, including gymnast Simone Biles, the late Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, and gun control advocate Gabby Giffords.
Biden also knows what it’s like to receive the medal. As president, Barack Obama presented Biden, his vice president, with the medal a week before the end of his government in 2017.
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