Civil rights attorney Fred Gray receives the nation’s highest honor
U.S. President Joe Biden presents the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Fred Gray, one of the first Black members of the Alabama state legislature since Reconstruction, during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House July 7, 2022 in Washington, DC. President Biden awarded the nation's highest civilian honor to 17 recipients. The award honors individuals who have made exemplary contributions to the prosperity, values, or security of the United States, world peace, or other significant societal, public or private endeavors.
Fred Gray, an attorney behind major legal cases of the civil rights era, received the Presidential Medal of Freedom Thursday, the nation’s highest civilian award.
“From the very beginning, I’ve known that there is no one more deserving of our nation’s highest civilian honor than Attorney Gray whose trailblazing work helped end segregation and advance a more equitable future,” said Alabama Congresswoman Terri Sewell.
Sewell has been advocating for Gray to receive the award.
Fred Gray was born in Montgomery and dedicated his life to seeking justice for Black people in the courtroom. He’s most known for representing Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, NAACP and victims of the Tuskegee Syphilis study.
At age 91, Gray is still practicing law.
Among the 16 other recipients of the medal was civil rights activist Diane Nash. Nash was born in Chicago and is most known for co-founding the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Through her leadership in SNCC, she helped lead the Freedom Rides, Selma Voting Rights Movement and lunch counter sit-ins.
King described her as “the driving spirit in the nonviolent assault on segregation at lunch counters.”
“Unshakeable courage and leadership, Diane Nash, shapes some of the most important civil rights efforts in American history,” said President Biden during the ceremony.
It wasn’t until years after the civil rights era that Nash received recognition for her work.
Nash continues to be an advocate for nonviolent movements.
Trump says Cabinet secretaries, not Elon Musk, are in charge of agency cuts
The president's message to his Cabinet secretaries comes amid continuing questions over the role of billionaire adviser Elon Musk in the drastic reshaping of the federal government.
A Pentagon press secretary has history of pushing antisemitic, extremist theories
Members of Congress and civil rights groups are condemning past comments from Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson, including some which critics called antisemitic.
California man charged after Lego larceny worth $25,000
The heists occurred in several California counties, where the alleged thief would load his shopping cart with the expensive building toys and disappear into the parking lot in a matter of minutes.
5 takeaways from the confirmation hearing for Trump’s FDA nominee
Dr. Marty Makary, President Trump's pick to run the Food and Drug Administration, faced questions from the Senate HELP Committee on the abortion pill, vaccines, FDA firings and chemicals in food.
Butterfly numbers have fallen by nearly a quarter since 2000
Butterflies of all kinds of species, in all parts of the country, have declined by one to two percent since 2000.
Democracy-promoting organization sues the Trump administration over withheld funds
President Ronald Reagan laid the rhetorical foundations for the National Endowment for Democracy in a 1982 speech to the British Parliament. Support for its creation in Congress was bipartisan.
