“font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; line-height: 14px;”>One of St. Louis’ own will receive the NAACP’s highest honor.
“font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: Verdana;”>Legendary St. Louis attorney Frankie Muse Freeman “font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: Verdana;”>will be honored with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s Spingarn Medal. “font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: Verdana;”>Instituted in 1914 by then-NAACP Chairman Joel E. Spingarn, the medal is awarded for outstanding and noble achievement by an African American.
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“Frankie
Muse Freeman has dedicated her life’s work to the Civil Rights
Movement,” said NAACP Chairman Roslyn M. Brock.
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“She broke
down barriers as a member of the NAACP’s brain trust during the
1950s and as the first woman to serve on the U.S. Commission on
Civil Rights. Her determination to end racial discrimination in
American society for more than half a century serves as an
inspiration to us all.”
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Freeman has
been a practicing attorney in state and federal courts for more
than 60 years. After graduating from Hampton Institute and Howard
University Law School, she began her career serving the State of
Missouri and the City of St. Louis. She helped the NAACP in the
case of Brewton v. Board of Education of St. Louis, and
later represented the NAACP in the landmark case Davis et al v.
the St. Louis Housing Authority, which ended legal racial
discrimination in public housing.
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“We are
honored to give Frankie Muse Freeman the highest award that our
102-year old organization can bestow,” said NAACP President and CEO
Benjamin Todd Jealous.
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“As a
premiere advocate for African Americans over the past six decades,
Freeman embodies the NAACP’s core values. Her record of success is
a testament to her competence and resolve.”
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In March
1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson nominated Freeman as the first
woman to serve as Commissioner of the U.S. Commission on Civil
Rights. Freeman served on the commission for 16 years, subsequently
reappointed by Presidents Nixon, Ford and Carter, until July 1980.
She also served as Inspector General of the Community Services
Administration during the Carter Administration. In 2003, Freeman
published a memoir, A Song of Faith and Hope: The Life of
Frankie Muse Freeman.
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Freeman has
received numerous accolades for her life’s work, including a number
of honorary degrees and induction into the National Bar
Association’s Hall of Fame and the international Civil Rights Walk
of Fame. She is past chair of the Board of Directors of the
National Council on the Aging, Inc. and serves on the executive
committee of the St. Louis City NAACP, among many other
organizations.
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To date, 95
Spingarn Medals have been awarded. Medalists include Dr. Benjamin
S. Carson, U.S. Rep. John Conyers, former U.S. Secretary of State
Colin L. Powell, Oprah Winfrey, baseball hall of famer Henry “Hank”
Aaron, Vernon Jordan, U.S. Rep. John Lewis, William H. Cosby, Jr.,
Maya Angelou, Virginia Governor L. Douglas Wilder, Rev. Jesse
Jackson, Percy E. Sutton, Gordon Parks, John Hope Franklin, the
late Judge Leon Higginbotham Jr., Carl Rowan, NAACP Chairman
Emeriti Julian Bond and Myrlie Evers-Williams, businessman and
publisher Earl G. Graves Sr., Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., artist
Jacob Lawrence, Rosa Parks, opera singer Leontyne Price, Judge
Constance Baker Motley, Judge Robert L. Carter and the late Oliver
W. Hill Sr.
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“I have been
a member and engaged with the NAACP for more than 60 years,” said
Frankie Muse Freeman. “It is with a great sense of pride and
humility that I accept the 96th NAACP Spingarn Award to
be presented on July 28, 2011, during the 102nd Annual
NAACP Convention in Los Angeles, California.”
