Freedom Awards 2022: Civil Rights Museum names honorees

Civil Rights historian Taylor Branch, FedEx founder Fred Smith and Isabel Wilkerson, author of the best-seller "The Warmth of Other Suns," about the so-called "Great Migration" of Black citizens out of the South, are the National Civil Rights Museum's 2022 Freedom Award honorees, museum officials announced Wednesday.

The awards will be presented Oct. 20 at the Orpheum, in a ceremony that will represent the first public Freedom Award gala since the COVID pandemic of 2020. That year's event was canceled, while the 2021 awards were presented in a live-streamed "virtual" show at the Orpheum that was not open to the public.

Museum officials acknowledged that the selection of Branch and Wilkerson — two Pulitzer Prize-winning writers whose work chronicles the Black experience and examines the history of race relations in the U.S., often with heavy emphasis on Memphis — was a rebuke to recent legislative efforts in Tennessee and elsewhere that make it illegal to teach school students lessons about race that would cause "discomfort" or "guilt" because of "the individual's race or sex" (to cite words and phrases in a Tennessee bill adopted in 2021).

Museum President Russell T. Wigginton Jr. said the museum's awards committee tries to select honorees who are "particularly relevant at this given time."

He said the writing of Branch and Wilkerson offers crucial insights into "African-American life and culture and history," but also provide "educational context" for understanding racial attitudes in America.

In addition, Wigginton said, the selection of Branch — author of a 2,912-page trilogy about Dr. Martin Luther King. Jr. known as "America in the King Years" — is a reminder that the National Civil Rights Museum was built on the site of the Lorraine Motel, where King was killed in 1968.

The museum opened in 1991 to celebrate King's legacy and to continue his work —"to educate and serve as a catalyst to inspire action to create positive social change," according to the its mission statement. Said Wigginton: "His ideals are at the center of our mission."

In more detail, the honorees are:

• Taylor Branch, author of the landmark civil rights trilogy, "America in the King Years." The first book, "Parting the Waters: America in the King Years, 1954-63," won the Pulitzer Prize for History in 1989; it was followed by the volumes "Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years, 1963-65," and "At Canaan's Edge: America in the King Year's, 1965-68." A chronicler of current as well as past injustice, Branch's 2011 cover story in The Atlantic, "The Shame of College Sports," ignited a debate about NCAA control of student athletes that continues to burn.

• Fred Smith (or, more formally, Frederick W. Smith), founder and executive chairman of FedEx. A longtime supporter of the National Civil Rights Museum and similar institutions, Smith and FedEx also have launched programs in support of HBCU (Historically Black Colleges and Universities), and "influenced millions in contributions to advancing inclusion, empowering economic opportunity, and encouraging learning and leadership for nonprofit organizations," according to the museum.

• Isabel Wilkerson,  author of two best-sellers in the past 12 years, "The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration," and "Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents," which examines racism and social stratification. As Chicago bureau chief for The New York Times, in 1994 she became the first African-American woman to win a Pulitzer Prize in journalism, for her feature stories.

Also honored during the Freedom Awards will be Memphis-born Jeffery Robinson, a longtime ACLU executive whose work on racial justice and education inspired the 2022 documentary, "Who We Are: A Chronicle of Racism in America," currently on Netflix. Segments of the documentary were filmed at the museum.

Billed by the museum as "one of the nation's most prestigious events," the Freedom Award has been given to close to 100 honorees over the past three decades. Some of the recipients include Coretta Scott King, Nelson Mandela, Jimmy Carter, Lech Walesa, Sidney Poitier, Stevie Wonder, Earvin "Magic" Johnson, Bishop Desmond Tutu, the Dalai Lama and at least three people so famous — Bono, Oprah and Usher — they don't need last names.

In 2018, future president Joe Biden was a recipient, while Michelle Obama was among last year's honorees.

Tickets go on sale Sept. 1. Tickets start at $100, with proceeds going to support the museum.

The presenting sponsors for this year's Freedom Awards are International Paper, FedEx, Nike, the Hyde Family Foundation and the Ford Motor Company.

The host, for the fourth time, will be actor and activist Lamman Rucker. The Freedom Award gala begins at 5:30 p.m. Oct. 20 at the Halloran Centre, with the ceremony set for 7 p.m. at the adjacent Orpheum Theatre at 203 S. Main.

For more information, visit civilrightsmuseum.org.

John Beifuss covers news, features and pop culture. He can be reached at john.beifuss@commercialappeal.com

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Civil Rights Museum names 2022 Freedom Awards honorees