Dear President Obama,
We are asking that you honor Chuck Berry with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Chuck Berry is often called one of the architects of rock and roll music. He’s credited with nearly inventing rock and roll guitar. He is called the first poet of rock and roll. The songs he wrote are the basis of rock and roll: Maybellene, Nadine, Rock and Roll Music, Roll Over Beethoven, Brown Eyed Handsome Man, School Day, Johnny B. Goode—and that’s just for starters. He’s a first class showman who continues to play at age 86.
His music helped change the world. When Chuck Berry and his contemporaries first started playing big shows, a rope separated black from white—but as the music caught fire, the rope fell down, and kids mixed and mingled, dancing together despite segregation.