Presidential Medals of Freedom Presentation

The president awarded fifteen medals to several different civil rights activists, including Justin Dart, James Farmer, Robert Coles and Elliot Richardson. President Clinton lauded the recipients for their service to the nation and citizenship. The winners in the order of their awards are: Arnie Aronson, a co-founder of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, Brooke Astor, a poet, Robert Coles, a psychiatry professor, Justin Dart, a disabled rights activist, James Farmer, a co-founder of the Congress of Racial Equality, Frances Hesselbein, former president of the Girl Scouts of America, Fred Korematsu, a Japanese-American interred during World War II, Saul Linowitz, a diplomat, Wilma Mankiller, former chief of the Cherokee nation, Mandy Murie, a conservationist, Mario Obledo, a co-founder of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, Elliott Richardson, who has served in several cabinet departments, David Rockefeller, Albert Shanker, the late president of the American Federation of Teachers, and Elmo “Bud” Zumwalt, an advocate for Vietnam veterans. close