Freedom Awards 2023: National Civil Rights Museum names honorees

Voting rights advocate and former Georgia state legislator Stacey Abrams, human rights activist Kerry Kennedy and Stanford professor Clayborne Carson, who since 1985 has headed the effort to edit and publish the papers of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., are the National Civil Rights Museum's 2023 Freedom Award honorees, museum officials announced Tuesday, in a Zoom press conference.

Museum president Russell T. Wigginton Jr. said the three recipients are "catalysts for positive social change" who have dedicated their careers to "creating life-changing blueprints for our society."

The awards will be presented Oct. 19 at the Orpheum, in a ceremony that will represent the second public Freedom Award gala since the COVID-19 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.)

Abrams — whose efforts to encourage voter turnout were credited as key to Democrat victories in the 2020 presidential and Senate elections in Georgia — is a particularly pertinent choice in the early months of the 2024 presidential election campaign, as debates over gerrymandering, voter ID laws and other issues continue to make their way through state legislatures and the courts.

"Voting rights are fundamental to what the civil rights movement is all about," Wigginton said. "There's an urgency to citizenship and voting today that happens to be grounded in the urgency of yesterday. When you think of all the young people (civil rights activists) who went to Mississippi in the '60s, at the forefront of their efforts was working to ensure ability to register to vote." He said Abrams' award is "an acknowledgment of the work she did for years, before she became the person who some met for the first time in her political race."

Billed by the museum as "one of the nation's most prestigious events," the Freedom Award — now in its 32nd year — has been given to close to 100 honorees. Some past recipients include Coretta Scott King, Jimmy Carter, Lech Walesa, Sidney Poitier, Stevie Wonder, Earvin "Magic" Johnson, Bishop Desmond Tutu and at least three people so famous — Bono, Oprah and Usher — they don't need last names.

In 2018, Joe Biden was a recipient, while Michelle Obama was among the 2021 honorees.

National Civil Rights Museum: Freedom Award gala delivers 'call to arms' while paying tribute to honorees

According to organizers, the Freedom Award is the "signature event," of the museum, which 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 museum's mission statement.

As a museum press release states, the Freedom Award "pays tribute to individuals who have shown unwavering commitment to promoting justice and equality." Wigginton said the award has been presented to "international" recipients, including Nelson Mandela and the Dalai Lama, so "it has helped us build relationships all over the world."

In more detail, the honorees are:

Stacey Abrams

Founder of Fair Fight Action, an organization founded in 2018 to combat voter suppression, Abrams became the face of voters' rights during the hotly contested federal elections of 2020. She served in the Georgia House of Representatives from 2007 to 2017, and was the first African America female major-party gubernatorial nominee in 2018, when she narrowly lost the Georgia governor's race to Republican candidate Brian Kemp.

Clayborne Carson

Professor emeritus at Stanford University, Carson's "profound work centers on the study of Martin Luther King Jr. and the human rights movements that his legacy has inspired," according to a statement from the museum. A student participant in the historic 1963 March on Washington, the Buffalo-born Carson is director of the Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute, where he oversees the encyclopedic, long-term effort to organize, edit and publish King's papers.

Kerry Kennedy

Seventh child of Robert and Ethel Kennedy (and ex-wife of former New York governor Andrew Cuomo), Kerry Kennedy was 8 years old when her father was assassinated in 1968. A lawyer and human rights activist who has specialized in women's rights, environmental justice and child labor issues, she is the president of Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, a Washington-based nonprofit human rights advocacy organization.

The Freedom Award gala begins at 5:30 p.m. Oct. 19 at the Halloran Centre, with the ceremony set for 7 p.m. at the adjacent Orpheum Theatre at 203 S. Main. The host will be actor and philanthropist Tobias Truvillion, who is perhaps most recognized for his roles in such television series as "Empire," "Sistas" and, early in his career, the soap opera "One Life to Live."

The presenting sponsor for the Freedom Awards this year is Nike, with FedEx, International Paper and Hyde Family Foundation as "signature sponsors." Tickets go on sale Aug. 1 via Ticketmaster, with proceeds going to support the museum.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: National Civil Rights Museum names 2023 Freedom Awards honorees