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Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipient Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
Presidential Medal of Freedom Announcement of Award to the
Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., It., and Dr. Jonas E. Salk
July 4, 1977
The President today announced that he is awarding the Presidential Medal of Freedom to the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Dr Jonas E. Salk.
The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the Governments highest civil award. It may be awarded only by the President to persons who have made especially meritorious contributions to the security or national interests of the United States, to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors.
The citations accompanying the medals follow:
"Martin Luther King, Jr. was the conscience of his generation. He gazed upon the great wall of segregation and saw that the power of love could bring it down. From the pain and exhaustion of his fight to fulfill the promises of our founding fathers for our humblest citizens, he wrung his eloquent statement of his dream for America. He made our nation stronger because he made it better. His dream sustains its yet."
"Because of Doctor Jonas E. Salk, our country is free from the cruel epidemics of poliomyelitis that once struck almost yearly. Because of his tireless work, untold hundreds of thousands who might have been crippled are sound in body today. These are Doctor Salk's true honors, and there is no way to add to them. This Medal of Freedom can only express our gratitude, and our deepest thanks."
Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., outside the White House, January 1964
Coretta Scott King Being Presented an Award by Former President Jimmy Carter
President Jimmy Carter presents the Medal of Freedom here to Mrs. Corretta Scott King, posthumously to her slain husband Martin Luther King Jr., for his civil rights work. at right is King's father Martin Luther King, Sr.
Presidential Medal of Freedom Remarks on Presenting the Medal to
Dr. Jonas E. Salk and to Martin Luther King, Jr
July 11, 1977
THE PRESIDENT. As you may know, the Medal of Freedom is the highest civilian award that's given in our country. It was begun when President Truman was in the White House, and the number of people who receive it is very small.
There are many Americans who do great things, who make us proud of them and their achievements, and who inspire us to do better ourselves. But there are some among those noble achievers who are exemplary in every way, who reach a higher plateau of achievement, and whose recognition almost demands being consummated by someone in my own position.
Today I have chosen to honor two great men, one who has alleviated suffering and despair in the field of health and one who has chosen to alleviate suffering and despair in the field of human freedom.
I'm very grateful today to have this opportunity on behalf of more than 200 million Americans to recognize these noble recipients of the award, one in life, one in death, but we know that they both live now and a thousand years from now, perhaps, will still live in the minds and hearts of Americans.
I'd like to first call Dr. Jonas Salk forward to present an award to him and to read a citation.
[At this point, the President read the citation, the text of which follows:]
THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AWARDS THIS PRESIDENTIAL MEDAL OF FREEDOM TO DR. JONAS E. SALK
Because of Dr. Jonas E. Salk, our country is free from the cruel epidemics of poliomyelitis that once struck almost yearly. Because of his tireless work, untold hundreds of thousands who might have been crippled are sound in body today. These are Doctor Salk's true honors, and there is no way to add to them. This Medal of Freedom can only express our gratitude, and our deepest thanks.
I'd like to give this to Mrs. Salk to deliver to her husband later. Thank you.
DR. SALK. Mr. President, you have drawn special attention to me for the successful control of poliomyelitis. Our freedom from fear of this disease is the result of years of work by a great many who preceded me and who followed. This freedom was achieved to the mutual participation of the public as well as the scientific and medical communities.
I am deeply moved to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom along with Martin Luther King, Jr., whose life and work contributed so richly to the ultimate freedoms we seek freedom from human exploitation and oppression. Our Founding Fathers spoke about the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, but without freedom from oppression and from disease, the pursuit of happiness has little meaning.
I hope that all the world will see your own aspirations and commitments to life and to liberty, the world over, in the meaningful recognition that you have given to the importance of human rights and human health.
The achievements to which you have drawn attention serve as examples of more that might be accomplished through national and international commitments to improve the health and well-being of people everywhere.
Laurels are not to be rested upon. They crown what is valued and desired by society. They impose responsibility as well as offer encouragement.
In this spirit, I am pleased to accept the honor you bestow upon me and, in so doing, upon all those who work in the same vineyard toward improving the health and well-being of humankind. And I thank you, Mr. President.
THE PRESIDENT. When I was a child in Georgia. I, along with all other people, perhaps, in the world my age, were constantly fearful of the blight of a polio epidemic. In our own country alone in the years shortly before the Salk vaccine was developed, there were 52,000 people who were stricken with polio. And miraculously, because of the intelligence and commitment of Dr. Salk, this scourge was removed. And as he very generously described to us, many people before this achievement and since then have contributed as well to this alleviation of a constant threat.
When I was a child in Georgia, there was another threat as well which was even more all-encompassing and which afflicted us as did a physical disease, and that was racial discrimination, a deprivation of human freedom and a prohibition against the realization of the American dream for black people.
With unswerving dedication, superb courage, sensitivity, and humility and a dedication to peace, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., helped to remove this threat and this affliction. Although I never knew him personally, I've come to know the members of his family, and many thousands of people around the world now carry on his own deep commitments to which he gave his very life.
I'd like to ask Coretta King and Dr. Martin Luther King, Sr., to come and stand beside me as I read this citation.
[At this point, the President read the citation, the text of which follows:]
THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AWARDS THIS PRESIDENTIAL MEDAL OF FREEDOM TO MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.
Martin Luther King, Jr., was the conscience of his generation. He gazed upon the great wall of segregation and saw that the power of love could bring it down. From the pain and exhaustion of his fight to fulfill the promises of our founding fathers for our humblest citizens, he wrung his eloquent statement of his dream for America. He made our nation stronger because he made it better. His dream sustains us yet.
Signed, Jimmy Carter.
MRS. King. Thank you, Mr. President, Mr. Vice President, to our many friends who have gathered here today:
This is indeed a very moving moment for me and, needless to say, a very fulfilling one for me and my family and our friends who have come here today to share this occasion with us.
It is highly significant that you, Mr. President, a white Southerner, would become the first American President to recognize the importance of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s contributions to the human rights movement in this country and bestow upon him the highest civilian award--the Presidential Medal of Freedom . For us as a family and the millions in our Nation who believed in Martin Luther King, Jr.'s teaching, we are greatly encouraged and feel this action is indicative of the new spirit of reconciliation which you and your administration are causing in this Nation.
Thank you, Mr. President, for renewing our hopes that our Nation can rise to true greatness and give due honor to one of its greatest national heroes.
This medal will be displayed with Martin's Nobel Peace Prize in the completed Martin Luther King, Jr., Center for Social Change, his official memorial in Atlanta, Georgia. It will serve as a continuous reminder and inspiration to young people and unborn generations that his dream of freedom, justice, and equality must be nurtured, protected, and fully realized, that they must be the keepers of the dream.
Let us all once again rededicate our lives to the fulfillment of Martin Luther King's dream, which was truly the American dream.
Thank you, Mr. President.
NOTE: The President spoke at 1:37 p.m. at the ceremony in Room 450 at the Old Executive Office Building.
Dr. King at dinner honoring Rosa Parks August 10, 1965
Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Delivers His Most Famous Speech "I Have A Dream" August 28, 1963
Martin Luther King Jr. Speech Menu
I HAVE A DREAM MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.
Fivescore years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.
But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free; one hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination; one hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity; one hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself in exile in his own land.
So we've come here today to dramatize a shameful condition. In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of our Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was the promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note in so far as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check ; a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds." We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation.
And so we've come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy; now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice; now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood; now is the time to make justice a reality for all God's children. It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the movement. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality.
Nineteen sixty-three is not and end, but a beginning. And those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content, will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual.
There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.
But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds.
Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.
The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny and they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. This offense we share mounted to storm the battlements of injustice must be carried forth by a biracial army. We cannot walk alone.
And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?: We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality.
We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one.
We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating "for whites only." We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.
I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of excessive trials and tribulation. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.
Go back to Mississippi; go back to Alabama; go back to Louisiana; go back to the slums and ghettos of the northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can, and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.
So I say to you, my friends, that even though we must face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed - we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, sons of former slaves and sons of former slave-owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day, even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today!
I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places shall be made plain, and the crooked places shall be made straight and the glory of the Lord will be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.
This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with.
With this faith we will be able to hear out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood.
With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to go to jail together, knowing that we will be free one day. This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning-"my country 'tis of thee; sweet land of liberty; of thee I sing; land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride; from every mountain side, let freedom ring"-and if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.
Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.
Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.
Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.
Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.
But not only that.
Let freedom ring from the Stone Mountain of Georgia.
Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.
Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi, from every mountainside, let freedom ring.
And when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and hamlet, from every state and city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children - black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Catholics and Protestants - will be able to join hands and to sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last, free at last; thank God Almighty, we are free at last."
Medal of Freedom Citation:
MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.
Awarded by
President Jimmy Carter
July 11, 1977
Martin Luther King, Jr., was the conscience of his generation. He gazed upon the great wall of segregation and saw that the power of love could bring it down. From the pain and exhaustion of his fight to fulfill the promises of our founding fathers for our humblest citizens, he wrung his eloquent statement of his dream for America. He made our nation stronger because he made it better. His dream sustains us yet.
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Medal History
