Obama names Medal of Freedom recipients

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama, attempting to spotlight several “agents of change,” announced Thursday he will bestow the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the country’s highest civilian honor, on a cast of living and deceased figures widely known in politics, the arts and sciences, sports and social movements.

The 16 honorees named by the White House include the late Harvey Milk, the city supervisor of San Francisco who led an early movement for gay rights in public life and was assassinated. They also include the late Republican congressman and football legend Jack Kemp, and the ailing Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass.

The president’s choices, who will be honored at a White House ceremony Aug. 12, span from American civil rights activist Rev. Joseph Lowery to the South African freedom fighter Desmond Tutu. They include a pioneer in sports for women, tennis star Billie Jean King, and the first woman on the Supreme Court, retired Justice Sandra Day O’Connor.

They also include actor Sidney Poitier and singer Chita Rivera.

Others to be honored by Obama are breast cancer activist Nancy Goodman; Dr. Pedro Greer, a Florida physician who has led efforts to care for the poor; renowned Cambridge University physicist Stephen Hawking; Dr. Joseph Medicine Crow, author of seminal works in Native American history and culture; Mary Robinson, first female president of Ireland and a former United Nations high commissioner for human rights; Dr. Janet Rowley, honored University of Chicago geneticist; and economist Muhammad Yunus, a Nobel Peace Prize recipient who pioneered the use of “micro-loans” to provide credit to the poor.