WASHINGTON — An hour after President Barack Obama placed the Presidential Medal of Freedom around his neck — further validation of his more than 60 years at the forefront of the civil rights movement — C.T. Vivian was still insistent that he had not arrived where he stood Wednesday by himself.
“The president is honoring Martin Luther King Jr. and his methods. Without Martin, there would not be a (C.T. Vivian), a John Lewis or an Andy Young,” he said, naming two other Atlantans previously honored with the medal. “All of this came because we had the right methods and he was able to pick the right people.”
Modesty aside, the day belonged to Vivian and the 15 other national luminaries who were honored with the nation’s highest civilian honor in a formal White House ceremony.
Vivian shared the East Room stage with, among others, media mogul Oprah Winfrey, baseball hall-of-famer Ernie Banks, former Washington Post editor Benjamin C. Bradlee and former President Bill Clinton.
Long vanished but very much felt was President John F. Kennedy, who created the Medal of Freedom and whose assassination 50 years ago this week brought a special poignancy to the event.
“I hope we carry away from this a reminder of what JFK understood to be the essence of the American spirit,” Obama said in bestowing the medals.
For his part, Vivian hailed Obama’s presidency as a vindication of his work. “It makes me feel good that we helped elect a president,” he said. “If we had not had a civil rights movement, he wouldn’t be here. So what we did was a tremendous success – especially when you are in a room with a black president.”
After the ceremony, Obama and Clinton visited Arlington National Cemetery for a brief ceremony at Kennedy’s grave. The Obamas and Clintons were joined by several members of the Kennedy family, including Ethel Kennedy, the widow of Robert F. Kennedy.
More than 500 people have been honored with the medal by presidents through the years. It marks their their contributions to the security or national interests of the United States, to world peace, to cultural advancement or other significant public or private endeavors.
Wednesday, before awarding the medals, Obama carefully and sometimes playfully paid tribute to each recipient. He said that as a White Sox fan, he could appreciate Banks’ optimism for the Cubs. He apologized to Clinton for sending his wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, on so many foreign missions. And he noted how a young newswoman refused to change her name to “Susie” Winfrey at the behest of a long-forgotten station manager.
“I have to pause here to say, I got the same advice. Oh, they didn’t say I should be named Susie, but they suggested I should change my name,” Obama recalled.
On a loftier note, he paid tribute to the recipients as “men and women who, in their extraordinary lives, remind us all of the beauty of the human spirit, the values that define us as Americans, the potential that lives inside of all of us.”
Obama called Vivian, a champion of “greater justice and equality,” who, during the tumultuous days of sit-ins and marches, was frequently “among the first to go in.”
“And now, at the age of 89, he is still in the action, pushing us closer to our national goals” Obama said.
Along with Vivian, Bayard Rustin, who helped organize the 1963 March on Washington and later pushed for gay rights, was also recognized for his civil rights work, albeit posthumously. Also honored was feminist and women’s rights advocate Gloria Steinem, who, Obama said, “awakened a vast and often skeptical public to problems like domestic violence, the lack of affordable child care, (and) unfair hiring practices.”
“This means a movement was honored,” Steinem told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “All of this is about a movement. Bayard Rustin was about a movement, and all of that makes this more joyous for me.”
Musing on the honor to Vivian, Don Rivers, one of his longtime aides, said, “He is such a humble man. So what this does is create a situation for him to do more work in the community. He is such a community servant, activist and servant.”
Banks, who played his whole career for the Chicago Cubs, joins Atlanta’s Henry Aaron among the ranks of Medal of Freedom winners. Both are members of baseball’s Hall of Fame and former players in the Negro Leagues.
At 82, Banks was as chipper as he was when he coined the phrase, “Let’s play two.”
“What did I do to make this a better world?” Banks asked rhetorically. “I never understood what a role model was. Others inspired me.”
