The Four Freedoms Awards are presented each year to people whose achievements have demonstrated a commitment to those principles which President Roosevelt proclaimed in his historic speech to Congress on January 6, 1941, as essential to democracy: freedom of speech and expression, freedom of worship, freedom from want, freedom from fear.

The Roosevelt Institute has awarded the Four Freedoms Medals to some of the most distinguished Americans and world citizens of our time, including Presidents Truman, Kennedy, Carter and Clinton; international luminaries such as Nelson Mandela and the Dalai Lama; and treasured Americans including Coretta Scott King, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, II, Dan Rather, Sister Simone Campbell, and Bryan Stevenson. 

This year, for the first time in our 39 year history, the Roosevelt Institute will center the Four Freedoms Awards on a theme: racial justice.  Whether we can build a multiracial democracy and a truly inclusive society is, arguably, the most important question facing the United States today. It is time to focus our collective efforts on what racial justice truly requires: material equity, repair and redress, and freedom and self-determination.

This year’s laureates deeply embody racial justice through their work and legacies in the categories of the Four Freedoms.  These awards make clear that our commitment to human freedoms and security, shared well-being, and the importance and strength of the democratic process must never again ignore or exclude any segment of our population.