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1995 Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipients
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1995 Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipients
1995 Presidential Medal of Freedom Ceremony
Statement Announcing the Award of the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Gaylord Nelson
April 21, 1995
I am pleased to announce my intention to award the Presidential Medal of Freedom to former Senator Gaylord Nelson, who as State Legislator, Governor, and Senator championed the protection of our natural resources. As we commemorate the 25th anniversary of Earth Day, his creation, it is fitting that we honor this great American's lifetime of public service. In establishing Earth Day, Gaylord Nelson helped us to recognize that our fragile environment was increasingly at peril and that each of us could make a difference. His work has inspired all Americans to take responsibility for the planet's well-being and for our children's future. I look forward to presenting the Medal to Senator Nelson.
William J. Clinton
Koop Receives Presidential Medal of Freedom
9/29/1995
CLINTON AWARDS 12 CIVILIANS HIGHEST MEDAL OF HONOR
President Clinton Friday awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to 12 people, including former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop, declaring them a symbol of "the true face of American heroism."
The nation's highest civilian honor also went to two advocates of children's television, Peggy Charren and Joan Ganz Cooney.
Cooney is founder of the Children's Television Workshop and "Sesame Street." Charren founded Action for Children's Television to fight TV violence.
The white-bearded Koop, a pediatric surgeon, was known as a conservative opponent of abortion when appointed surgeon general in 1981 by President Reagan.
Koop's voice was one of the first against the erupting AIDS epidemic, urging the use of condoms.
Posthumous awards went to Walter P. Reuther, the outspoken United Auto Workers president who crusaded against communism, corruption and racism, and Willie Velasquez, founder of the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project, whose advocacy helped to nearly double the number of Latino elected officials nationwide.
Other honorees were William T. Coleman Jr., former transportation secretary and chairman of the board of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, for efforts to ensure equal opportunity; John Hope Franklin, a black historian, for his work highlighting the history of the South and the roles of black Americans in the nation's development; U.S. Court of Appeals Judge A. Leon Higginbotham Jr., civil rights attorney and professor at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, for his commitment to equal and civil rights; U.S. District Judge Frank M. Johnson Jr., who ruled in 1956 that the segregated bus system in Montgomery, Ala., was unconstitutional, for his efforts to dismantle segregation and protect the rights of prisoners and mentally ill people; former Sen. Gaylord Nelson (D-Wis.), creator of Earth Day, for his environmental activism; urban designer James W. Rouse, whose designs have helped revitalize inner cities; and Lew R. Wasserman, a Hollywood studio executive, for his contributions and advocacy on behalf of the blind and visually impaired.
GRAPHIC: (color): Hillary Rodham Clinton and President Clinton congratulate former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop after an awards ceremony Friday. AP photo.
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Medal History
