Civil rights icons Diane Nash, Fred Gray awarded Medal of Freedom by President Joe Biden

Kirsten Fiscus, Nashville Tennessean
·2 min read
4
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.

Civil rights icons Diane Nash and Fred Gray on Thursday afternoon were awarded the nation's highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, by President Joe Biden.

Nash and Gray — both have ties to Nashville — were among 15 others who received the award.

The Medal of Freedom is awarded to people who made significant contributions in the U.S. or internationally in politics, philanthropy, science, sports, the arts and other arenas.

Previous coverage: Nashville civil rights veteran Diane Nash to be honored with Presidential Medal of Freedom

In other news: Now that the Supreme Court has overturned Roe v. Wade, what happens next?

In 1959, Nash, a Chicago native, arrived in Nashville to attend Fisk University. She led sit-ins at Nashville lunch counters, marching to the courthouse plaza, now named for her, to confront the mayor. Nash also coordinated freedom rides when violence threatened participants and, while pregnant, was jailed in Mississippi for teaching minors nonviolence protest tactics.

She was elected chairperson of the Nashville movement and was a founding member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.

Black leaders march down Jefferson Street at the head of a group of 3000 demonstrators April 19, 1960, and heading toward City Hall on the day of the Z. Alexander Looby bombing. In the first row, are the Rev. C.T. Vivian, left, Diane Nash of Fisk, and Bernard Lafayette of American Baptist Seminary. In the second row are Kenneth Frazier and Curtis Murphy of Tennessee A&I, and Rodney Powell of Meharry. Using his handkerchief in the third row is the Rev. James Lawson, one of the advisors to the students. News reporters believed it marked the first time Rev. Lawson had participated in a demonstration downtown.

Biden recalled a phone call between Nash and U.S. Attorney General Robert Kennedy's top aids where they warned her about the increasing violence surrounding the Freedom Rides.

"She replied, and I quote, 'We all signed our last will and testaments before we left. We know some of them will be killed. We cannot let violence overcome nonviolence,'" Biden said.

Biden praised her "unshakeable courage," during the Civil Rights Movement.

"Her activism echoes the call of freedom around the world today," he said, "and yet she’s the first to say the medal is shared with hundreds of thousands of patriotic Americans that sacrificed so much for the cause of liberty and justice for all."

President Joe Biden awards the nation's highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, to Fred Gray during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Thursday, July 7, 2022. Gray is a prominent civil rights attorney who represented Rosa Parks, the NAACP and Martin Luther King Jr., who called Gray "the chief counsel for the protest movement." (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Gray, a native of Montgomery, Alabama, attended Nashville Christian Institute, a now-defunct African American preparatory school. As a famed civil rights lawyer, he led some of the most pivotal legal cases of the era, defending Rosa Parks and serving as one of Martin Luther King Jr.'s first lawyers when the civil rights leader was a Montgomery pastor. Gray also served as legal counsel for Tuskegee Syphilis Study victims.

"Fred’s legal brilliance and strategy desegregated schools and secured the right to vote," Biden said. "He went on to be elected as one of the first African Americans elected to the state Alabama legislature since Reconstruction.

"An ordained minister, he imbued a righteous calling that touched the soul of our nation."

President Joe Biden awards the nation's highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, to Diane Nash at the White House in Washington, Thursday, July 7, 2022. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
President Joe Biden awards the nation's highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, to Diane Nash at the White House in Washington, Thursday, July 7, 2022. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Contact Tennessean reporter Kirsten Fiscus at 615-259-8229 or KFiscus@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @KDFiscus.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Civil rights icons Diane Nash, Fred Gray awarded Medal of Freedom