photograph courtesy national civil rights museum
Since 1991 the Freedom Award has served as a symbol of the ongoing struggle for rights both in America and worldwide. With this annual event, the National Civil Rights Museum has honored world dignitaries, past presidents, media luminaries, athletic legends, and more. The award is presented to individuals who have made significant contributions in civil rights and who have laid the foundation for present and future leaders in the battle for human rights.
In 1991, the first recipients of the Freedom Awards were genuine American icons who dedicated their lives to the causes of human and civil rights: James Farmer, Coretta Scott King, and Rosa Parks. Since then, the awards have recognized the life-changing work of such inspirations as Jimmy Carter, Colin Powell, Nelson Mandela, Oprah Winfrey, and the Dalai Lama.
This year’s recipients, who will be honored October 19th at The Orpheum, are civil rights activist, political leader, and author Stacey Abrams; Kerry Kennedy, president of Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights; and Dr. Clayborne Carson, the Martin Luther King Jr. Centennial Professor of History at Stanford University.
Kerry Kennedy will be the first member of her famous family to be honored with the National Civil Rights Museum’s Freedom Award. As president of Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, she has carried forth and expanded much of her father’s mission with a focus on child labor, women’s rights, and environmental justice. Kennedy is the seventh child (third daughter) of Robert and Ethel Kennedy. In 1968, Bobby Kennedy died in Los Angeles — the victim of a gun-wielding assassin — just two months after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was slain in Memphis.
Memphis Magazine: Congratulations on the Freedom Award. You’re in great company. What does the honor mean to you?
Kerry Kennedy: This is an award for all of my colleagues. I’m the spokesperson for them, but they do all the hard work, both domestically and internationally. Creating change, not just through process, but through concrete progress. One of our proudest moments was when we supported Memphians and their grassroots campaign for political reform by exposing racial discriminatory practices in a former district attorney.
Our work on anti-black violence in the United States by the criminal legal system has been cross-cutting, and created change. It’s what we aim to do. And our work on women’s rights is something I’m very proud of.
The human-rights mission changes as the world changes. How do you see the struggle today, with factors like the climate crisis or legal matters like the overturning of Roe v. Wade?
This organization was founded in 1968. They had a choice of building a monument to Robert Kennedy, erecting a statue, or naming a building after him. They decided to create an organization that would carry forward his unfinished work, and address issues of the time, so we evolve with the evolving times. Our human-rights work started in the 1980s and we focused primarily on Latin America and somewhat Korea. Political rights: free expression, the targeting of dissidents, voting. Today, we focus on both political and economic rights.
We do a lot of litigation. Domestically, we’re focused on the crucible of race poverty and criminalization. Internationally, we focus on free expression generally, and the targeting of people who use free expression and are from marginalized groups. Indigenous groups who are trying to stop mining in their territory. Or LGBTQ organizations. Last year in Honduras, we became the first organization to hold a government accountable for the assassination of a transgender woman. About five years ago, we were the first organization to hold a Latin American country accountable for the assassination of a journalist. In Zimbabwe, we held a government accountable for the persecution of nonviolent protesters, the first case successfully won in all of Africa. That involved persecuting women activists.
We also work with the investment community — Wall Street — to put down more pressure on corporations to comply with human rights work.
Do you see gun violence in America as a human-rights issue? What can be done to reduce random murder?
Absolutely. The right to life. Gun control and abortion: If you’re on social media, your perspective is that our country is completely divided. But we’re not. Seventy to 80 percent of the people in our country believe we should have more access to abortion. And that there should be further gun controls. We’re not really divided on those issues. I don’t want to say they’re the most important issues, necessarily, but they’re top of the news.
Congress is not motivated by what the country, as a whole, is looking for. It’s the way the House of Representatives was created. So each district would have its voice heard. Because of gerrymandering, [legislators] are motivated by what their district likes, what will keep them in power. Districts aren’t just gerrymandered to give a constituency a voice, but to make sure another constituency does not have a voice.
photograph by brian groppe
The sculpture, Movement to Overcome, greets visitors inside the lobby of the National Civil Rights Museum.
Women in leadership positions are changing the world. You’re one of them. How do you view the growing impact women are making?
That’s been a dramatic change since I began working in human rights. As of January 2023, there were 31 countries where women served as heads of state or government. According to the American Psychological Association, “Decades of study show women leaders help increase productivity, enhance collaboration, inspire organizational education, and improve fairness.”
I grew up in a super-competitive family, and there’s a lot to be said for that, as it drives people to be better. What’s far more important than competition, though, is cooperation. Women leaders, in general, are more about collaboration. If you’re running a dictatorship, that’s one thing. If you’re trying to create a democracy, it’s about cooperation and collaboration. Finding a way forward, where you’re not talking about one person, but about all people.
Memphis is a city heavy with poverty. What message would you send our city leaders for ongoing efforts to reduce systemic poverty?
The biggest issue we face as a country is racism. It still reverberates in all our decision-making, all our institutions, whether we’re aware of it or not. Of course, poverty goes right beside racism. The United Nations established Sustainable Development Goals, 17 things we need to do to address global poverty and global warming. You can’t do one of these and expect the rest of them to work. You have to do all of them at once. If you want to address poverty, you have to address global warming. You can’t address poverty and not have girls going to school. You can’t address girls not going to school without addressing domestic violence. You can’t address domestic violence if you don’t have voting rights. You can’t address voting rights if you don’t have a fair judicial system. You can’t have a fair judicial system if the police system is targeting Black women.
It’s good to have organizations that focus on one area at a time. But you have to address everything all at once. Collaboration.
Editor’s Note: Please read our interview with Stacey Abrams here.
