Congressman Tim Ryan and Senators Sherrod Brown and Rob Portman have urged President Obama to award African-American journalist Simeon Booker the Presidential Medal of Freedom – the highest civilian honor in the U.S. – for his pioneering achievements in journalism and his work to advance the civil rights movement.
Notable historical moments:
1955: his coverage of the Emmett Till murder and trial turned a common occurrence in the Deep South into a national tragedy that united the African American community and advanced the civil rights movement.
1961: rode with the Freedom Riders through the Deep South on public busses. When they were firebombed and beaten by the Ku Klux Klan in Alabama, Booker called Attorney General Robert Kennedy to save the Riders from the angry white mobs.