02-04-2025
Nobel Prize-winning author among recipients of Freedom Center's highest honor for 2025
The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center announced the 2025 honorees of its International Freedom Conductor Awards, which, in past years, recognized several celebrities, politicians and activists, including Rosa Parks, Nelson Mandela and George Clooney.
The Freedom Center announced Wednesday that it will present its highest honor to the following modern-day freedom heroes and equity advocates:
Opal Lee, the grandmother of Juneteenth.
Lonnie G. Bunch III, the first African American secretary of the Smithsonian Institution.
Toni Morrison, Pulitzer Prize and Nobel Prize-winning author. *posthumously
Isabel Wilkerson, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and best-selling author.
According to a press release, the International Freedom Conductor Award recognizes the "contributions of contemporary individuals who, by their actions and personal examples, reflect the spirit and courageous actions of conductors on the historic Underground Railroad, the nation's original social justice movement."
The Freedom Center's International Freedom Conductor Awards will be presented during a special honors program, presented by Procter & Gamble, on May 24 at the Aronoff Center. The program, which coincides with the Freedom Center's 30th anniversary, will also feature live musical performances and reflections from award honorees.
Other past recipients of the award include Archbishop Desmond Tutu, former President George H.W. Bush and former President Bill Clinton.
'Our International Freedom Conductors remind us that we are all worthy of being torchbearers and we must all answer the call to lead through the darkness, moving ever closer to the brilliant light of freedom," Woodrow Keown, Jr., president and COO of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, said in a statement.
Tickets for the 2025 International Freedom Conductor Awards go on sale Friday, April 11.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Toni Morrison, others honored by Underground Railroad Freedom Center
