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. This year, for the first time in our 39-year history, The Roosevelt Institute will center the Four Freedoms Awards on a theme of racial justice.
The Freedom Medal will be awarded posthumously to civil rights activist Fred T. Korematsu, whose challenge of FDR’s policy decisions toward Japanese Americans during World War II went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. The Roosevelt Institute will present this award to Fred Korematsu’s daughter, Dr. Karen Korematsu, who leads the Fred T. Korematsu Institute.
Fred T. Korematsu
Civil Rights Activist and Hero
The Roosevelt Institute will posthumously honor Fred T. Korematsu, a civil rights activist whose challenge of the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II went all the way to the Supreme Court. The Roosevelt Institute will present the award to his daughter, Dr. Karen Korematsu, who leads the Fred. T. Korematsu Institute. In so doing, we will publicly acknowledge the harm FDR’s policy decision caused the Japanese American community, and by extension all Americans.