Four Freedoms Laureates 2011
Freedom of Speech | Freedom of Worship | Freedom from Want | Freedom from Fear
2011 Four Freedoms Laureates Announced
On September 17, the Roosevelt Institute presented the 2011 Four Freedoms Awards at a ceremony held in St. James' Church in Hyde Park, New York.
Watch the video of the event below (or click here if you are using an Apple device):
You can read the press release for the event here. You can also read the Poughkeepsie Journal's announcement of the awards and coverage of the ceremony, and hear Anna Eleanor Roosevelt explain why the Four Freedoms are still so relevant.
Former U.S. senator Russell D. Feingold received this year's Four Freedoms medal. As a champion of ethics in government and a man deeply committed to the fundamental exercise of democracy, he has spent a lifetime fighting the forces of wealth and privilege that sought to distort our electoral process for their own gain. In true FDR tradition, he used plain language to label such practices as little more than "legalized bribery and influence peddling." He also stepped across the aisle to help construct one of the most significant electoral reform acts in our nation’s history—the McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Bill. He sought to ban lobbyists from extending gifts to lawmakers; to prohibit members from obtaining other questionable benefits from their service in the House and Senate; and even returned over $50,000 in pay to the Senate as part of his campaign commitment not to take any raises while in office.
His dedication to values, to principle, and to the protection of fundamental liberties has led him to take a tough and sometimes lonely stance on a host of issues. In 2001, he was the only senator to vote against the Patriot Act. In 2002, he was one of the few senators to vote against the Iraq War, and a year later, he was the first to call for a timetable for withdrawal.
Thanks to his dedication “to doing what is right,” to his steadfast belief in putting principle first, and partisanship only in its service, he has reminded us, as FDR once said, that “government is ourselves and not an alien power over us.”
Click here to read Russell Feingold's remarks.
In addition to Russell Feingold, the following recipients were chosen for the 2011 Four Freedoms Awards:
Freedom of Speech and Expression – Michael J. Copps, Commissioner, FCC
A strong believer in the need for government to serve the people through the promotion of the common good, Michael J. Copps has always maintained that the media plays a crucial role in maintaining our democracy. As such, he has consistently argued that the FCC’s primary function must be to ensure that the myriad of voices that inform “democracy’s dialogue” must be heard. He has argued that the acquisition of a license to broadcast is not a God-given right, but a privilege based on the idea that the media has a responsibility to keep the public informed about the activities of our local, state and national governments; that the airways—and Internet—do not belong to a select corporate elite, but to all of us; and that as Americans, we have the right to enjoy access to home-grown cultural programming, to develop a sense of local and national community through the shared experience that only a robust and diverse media can bring.
In short, what he has tried to do is to modernize the FCC by returning it to its roots, because like FDR, he understands that “the only sure bulwark of continuing liberty is a government strong enough to protect the interests of the people, and a people strong enough and well enough informed to maintain its sovereign control over the government.”
Click here to read Michael Copps's remarks.
Freedom of Worship – Rev. Barry W. Lynn, Executive Director, Americans United for the Separation of Church and State
An accomplished attorney and ordained Minister in the United Church of Christ, Rev. Barry W. Lynn became executive director of Americans United for the Separation of Chuch and State in 1992. For nearly 20 years, he has led the AU’s efforts to protect and preserve one of the most important doctrines of American liberty, and in doing so, has helped enhance the freedom of each and every one of us “to worship God in his own way.”
During his time at AU, Rev. Lynn has argued that state-endorsed prayer has no place in our nation’s public schools and insisted that tax-exempt churches and religious organizations cannot not endorse specific political candidates, reminding us time and time again that all religious groups—as well as non-believers—must be treated equally under the law. Nowhere was this fundamental principle put to a sterner test than in the recent dispute about the right of Muslim groups to build a community center in lower Manhattan. Here he clearly stated that like any other religious organization, the community center’s sponsors have the right to build the center wherever they see fit, and that a proposal by the then-governor of New York to offer state-owned land to build the facility elsewhere was equally inappropriate, insisting that, “in America, government does not subsidize religion or give religious groups preferential treatment.”
Click here to read Barry Lynn's remarks.
Freedom from Want – Jacqueline Novogratz, Founder and CEO, Acumen Fund
Jacqueline Novograt's profound compassion for the less fortunate among us has led her to dedicate her life to the simple proposition that alleviating the suffering of the world’s poor is possible—if we use our resources to give people the chance to help themselves. After traveling the world for three years in Chase Manhattan Bank's Credit Audit Division, she decided to move to Rwanda to open a bakery with six Rwandan women, and then to help build that country’s first microfinance institution. Her experiences there led you to write her now famous memoir, The Blue Sweater, and to rededicate yourself to helping others through investment and business.
In 2001, she started the Acumen Fund—a non-profit venture capital fund that raises charitable money to invest in enterprises that provide services to impoverished populations in Africa and Asia. These investments promote life-giving local enterprises such as a drip irrigation system that allows farmers in India to raise production on drought-prone fields, the manufacture of malaria-preventing mosquito nets in Tanzania, or the re-opening of a long abandoned cotton ginning plant in Uganda. Today, Acumen has over $40 million invested, and investors are realizing a return on the things that matter most – the freedom from want that allows human beings to innovate, cultivate and live in peace.
She coined the term “patient capital”, for these investments are for the long term, not for short term gain. Thanks to these and many other investments, the “patient capital” she has championed is fostering a new approach to global development, helping thousands embrace a future full of hope and promise—and bringing about a world where Freedom from Want is one step closer to reality.
Click here to read Jacqueline Novogratz's remarks.
Freedom from Fear – Bryan A. Stevenson, Executive Director, Equal Justice Initiative
Raised in rural Alabama at a time when Jim Crow laws still dominated the South, Bryan Stevenson's commitment to speaking the truth and “doing what was right” began at an early age. Inspired by his grandmother—the daughter of slaves who never went to high school—he earned a JD at Harvard and opted not for a position at a high profile law firm, but to become a staff attorney for the Southern Center for Human Rights. In 1989, he founded the Equal Justice Initiative—a non-profit organization that seeks to provide legal representation to indigent defendants and prisoners who have been denied fair and just treatment in the legal system.
He has often remarked that it is important to use one’s voice “to say the things that need to be said”; to point out the injustices that still exist in America, where one out of three black men between the ages of 18 and 30 is in jail or prison or on probation or parole. Under his leadership, EJI has given voice to condemned prisoners, juvenile offenders, people wrongly convicted or charged with violent crimes, poor people denied effective representation, and others whose trials are marked by racial bias or prosecutorial misconduct.
Thanks to his work, and the work of EJI, many of those over-sentenced or unjustly sentenced now have hope that justice may one day prevail. By speaking truth to power, he has done what he urges his students at New York University Law School to do – raise a voice to generate a resonance that can create justice.
Since 1982, the centenary of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's birth, the Roosevelt Institute has awarded Four Freedoms Medals each year to individuals who exemplify the vision of the Four Freedoms that President Roosevelt outlined in his famous January 6, 1941 speech. The Laureates are chosen based on their lifetime commitment to these ideals. Past medal recipients include Presidents Truman, Kennedy, Carter, and Clinton, Coretta Scott King, Elie Wiesel, Thomas P. O’Neill, and Katharine Graham. Click here to view a list of all past laureates.
This year's awards were presented at a ceremony held in St. James’ Church, President Roosevelt’s lifelong place of worship in Hyde Park, New York. The Laureates were honored throughout the weekend at events at the nearby Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum located on the 32nd president's former estate. Mrs. Fredrica S. Goodman, board member of the Roosevelt Institute, chaired the event.
The Institute sponsors medal ceremonies in alternate years in the United States, recognizing American achievement, and in Middelburg, The Netherlands (President Roosevelt’s ancestral home), recognizing international achievement. The medals are presented in partnership with the Roosevelt Stichting, a private foundation in the Netherlands. As part of this year’s award ceremony, the Roosevelt Institute hosted a delegation from the Netherlands, led by the Queen’s Commissioner in the Province of Zeeland, who also participated in the ceremony.
For more information, contact Glen Weiner at 212-444-9610 or gweiner[at]rooseveltinstitute[dot]org.