Tutu, Lowery to Receive Medals of Freedom

By Wililam Wan

The White House just issued its list of 16 recipients of the 2009 Presidential Medal of Freedom. Among them are two religious leaders, civil rights leader Rev. Joseph Lowery and anti-apartheid activist and Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa.

Here's a snippet from the White House release explaining President Obama's reasons for choosing this year's recipients:

This year's awardees were chosen for their work as agents of change. Among their many accomplishments in fields ranging from sports and art to science and medicine to politics and public policy, these men and women have changed the world for the better. They have blazed trails and broken down barriers. They have discovered new theories, launched new initiatives, and opened minds to new possibilities.

Read the AP story .

And here are the official bios for both Lowery and Tutu:

Reverend Lowery has been a leader in the U.S. civil rights movement since the early 1950s. Rev. Lowery helped organize the Montgomery bus boycott after Rosa Parks was denied a seat, and later co-founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, a leading civil rights organization, with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Rev. Lowery led the march from Selma to Montgomery in 1965. Rev. Lowery is a minister in the United Methodist Church, and has continued to highlight important civil rights issues in the U.S. and worldwide, including apartheid in South Africa, since the 1960s.

Desmond Tutu is an Anglican Archbishop emeritus who was a leading anti-apartheid activist in South Africa. Widely regarded as "South Africa's moral conscience," he served as the General Secretary of the South African Council of Churches (SACC) from 1978 - 1985, where he led a formidable crusade in support of justice and racial reconciliation in South Africa. He received a Nobel Peace Prize for his work through SACC in 1984. Tutu was elected Archbishop of Cape Town in 1986, and the Chair of the South Africa Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 1995. He retired as Archbishop in 1996 and is currently Chair of the Elders.

By William Wan  |  July 30, 2009; 12:11 PM ET  | Category:  God in Government Save & Share:                 
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