Later at the White House, Obama honored sixteen people with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor. The recipients include the civil rights veteran Reverend Joseph Lowery, the South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the actor Sidney Poitier, the tennis legend Billie Jean King, the Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, former Irish president and UN human rights commissioner Mary Robinson, and the late gay rights pioneer Harvey Milk.

President Obama: “These extraordinary men and women, these agents of change, remind us that excellence is not beyond our abilities, that hope lies around the corner and that justice can still be won in the forgotten corners of this world. They remind us that we each have it within our powers to fulfill dreams, to advance the dreams of others and to remake the world for our children.”