White House Names Stephen Hawking, Jack Kemp, Sidney Poitier As Medal Of Freedom Recipients

July 30, 2009 1:36 p.m. EST

Washington, D.C. (AHN) - President Barack Obama's first Medal of Honor recipients include renowned physicist Stephen Hawking, 1996 Republican Vice Presidential Nominee Jack Kemp, Oscar Award Winner Sidney Poitier and LGBT pioneer Harvey Milk. The awards will be presented, posthumously to some, next month.

"These outstanding men and women represent an incredible diversity of backgrounds," the President said in a statement. "Their tremendous accomplishments span fields from science to sports, from fine arts to foreign affairs. Yet they share one overarching trait: Each has been an agent of change. Each saw an imperfect world and set about improving it, often overcoming great obstacles along the way."

Obama will honor 16 "agents of change" with the nation's top civilian award in a ceremony on Aug. 12. Apart from Hawking, Kemp and Poitier, the recipients include:

• Nancy Goodman Brinker, founder of the Susan G. Komen for the Cure, the world's leading breast cancer grassroots organization
• Pedro Jose Greer, Assistant Dean of Academic Affairs at the Florida International University School of Medicine and founder of Camillus Health Concern, an agency that provides medical care to over 10,000 homeless patients a year in Miami
• Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA), a champion of healthcare reform and the Senate's liberal lion and second most senior member
• Billie Jean King, former world no. 1 tennis player and first woman commissioner in professional sports
• Rev. Joseph Lowery, minister at the United Methodist Church and co-founder the Southern Christian Leadership Conference along with Martin Luther King
• Joe Medicine Crow, the last living Plains Indian war chief and author of seminal works in Native American history and culture
• Harvey Milk, the first openly gay elected official
• Sandra Day O'Connor, first woman Supreme Court justice
• Chita Rivera, Tony Award-winning actress and first Hispanic to receive the Kennedy Center Honor
• Mary Robinson, the first woman President of Ireland and a former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
• Janet Davison Rowley, geneticist and recipient of the National Medal of Science--the nation's highest scientific honor.
• Desmond Tutu, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Anglican Archbishop emeritus who was a leading anti-apartheid activist in South Africa
• Muhammad Yunus, Nobel Peace Prize awardee and economist who pioneered the use of micro-loans to fight poverty

The Medal of Freedom was established in 1945 by Harry Truman to recognize civilian service during World War II. Revived by John F. Kennedy during his term and not limited to U.S. citizens, past recipients include Cardinal Joseph Bernardin, Tony Blair, Gen Tommy Franks, John Kenneth Galbraith, Harper Lee, Colin Powell and Arnold Palmer.