Biden gives Presidential Medal of Freedom to prominent personalities

On January 5, 2025, President Joe Biden in the White House awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to 19 outstanding personalities. This highest civilian award in the USA is awarded for exceptional contributions to prosperity, values ​​and security of the United States, world peace as well as significant social and public aspirations. Among the excellent are prominent names such as Hillary Clinton, George Soros and Denzel Washington.

The event included recipients from different areas, including politics, sports, entertainment, civil rights and LGBTQ activism. Four of the medals were awarded posthumously, including Robert F. Kennedy, Ashton Carter, George Romney and Fannie Lou Hamer, who is known for their significant influence in the fight for civil rights in the USA. This diversity illustrates the different backgrounds and talents of the award winners, which particularly emphasized bidges when awarding the medals.

multi -layered award winners

The list of honored not only includes politics and philanthropists, but also artists and athletes. In addition to Hillary Clinton and George Soros, José Andrés, the founder of World Central Kitchen and Humanitarian, as well as the renowned conservationist Jane Goodall. Science educators Bill Nye and Michael J. Fox, football star Lionel Messi and basketball legend Earvin “Magic” Johnson are also among the award winners. Other honored are fashion conversations such as Anna Wintour and Ralph Lauren, as well as the filmmaker George Stevens Jr. and the entrepreneur Tim Gill.

In the previous year, 19 people also received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, including Medgar Evers, Nancy Pelosi, James Clyburn and Michelle Yeoh. The awarding of this medal is an integral part of the presidency of Biden, which was honored in 2017 with this award by Barack Obama.

For detailed reporting on the winners and the event, visit the articles on Sarajevo and NBC News .