Obama Honoring Streisand & More

President Barack Obama is recognizing 17 Americans with the nation’s highest civilian award Tuesday, including giants of the entertainment industry such as Barbra Streisand and Steven Spielberg, baseball legends Willie Mays and Yogi Berra, and politicians, activists and government innovators.

In addition to filmmaker Spielberg and singer and Oscar winner Streisand, Obama will present the Presidential Medal of Freedom to musicians Gloria and Emilio Estefan, singer James Taylor, composer Stephen Sondheim and violinist Itzhak Perlman.

Mays, one of baseball’s greatest catchers, was also among the first African-American players in Major League Baseball. Berra, who died in September, was a Yankee great, an 18-time All-Star and 10-time World Series champion.

WATCH: Barbra Streisand: When She Realized Her Vocal Gift

The politicians getting the honor are Democrats: Sen. Barbara Mikulski of Maryland, who has championed equal pay and women’s health during her 44 years of public service; former Rep. Lee Hamilton from Indiana, a longtime advocate of American national security and international relations; and the late Rep. Shirley Chisholm from New York. Chisholm was the first African-American woman elected to Congress, and a founding member of what would become the Congressional Black Caucus.

Other honorees:

WATCH: Steven Spielberg Confirms He’s Working With Tom Hanks On Another HBO Miniseries

—Bonnie Carroll, a veterans advocate, who founded the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS) to support families and loved ones impacted by the death of military heroes.

—Katherine G. Johnson, a NASA mathematician, whose calculations influenced every major space program, including the flight of the first American into space.

—William Ruckelshaus, a former chief of the Environmental Protection Agency, who shaped the guiding principles of the agency, including a nationwide ban on the pesticide DDT and an agreement with the automobile industry to require catalytic converters to reduce automobile pollution.

Posthumous recipients include Indian tribal advocate Billy Frank Jr., who led “fish-ins”— similar to sit-ins— during the tribal “fish wars” of the 1960s and 1970s, and civil rights leader Minoru Yasui, who challenged the constitutionality of a military curfew order during World War II on the grounds of racial discrimination and spent months in solitary confinement during the legal battle.

Copyright © 2024 by Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.

This material may not be republished, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Read More

Camila Mendes & Marisa Tomei Think ‘Upgraded’ Is The Perfect Date Night Movie