Toni Morrison, the late Nobel laureate and Pulitzer Prize-winning author, leads the list of honorees receiving the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center’s highest award this spring. Joining her as honorees are civil rights icon Opal Lee, Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie G. Bunch III and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Isabel Wilkerson.
The International Freedom Conductor Awards, presented by Procter & Gamble, take place May 24 at the Aronoff Center. The program recognizes individuals whose actions and personal examples reflect the courage of conductors on the historic Underground Railroad, the nation’s first social justice movement.
The upcoming ceremony will mark the Freedom Center’s 30th anniversary, celebrating three decades of social justice education and advocacy. The event will feature live music and reflections from the honorees. Limited seats are available, and the ceremony will be taped for a national rebroadcast.
Details about the honorees are below.
“Freedom calls to each of us. For generations, individuals have answered the call, risking their lives to light the way for the oppressed and the unfree,” said Woodrow Keown Jr., president and COO of the Freedom Center. “Our International Freedom Conductors remind us that we are all worthy of being torchbearers, and we must all answer the call to lead through the darkness, moving ever closer to the brilliant light of freedom.”
The 2025 honorees join past recipients, including Rosa Parks, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Nelson Mandela, U.S. Congressman John Lewis and Bryan Stevenson.
Tickets for the event go on sale April 11.
2025 International Freedom Conductor Award honorees
- Toni Morrison is a Pulitzer Prize- and Nobel Prize-winning author whose novel “Beloved” was inspired by the true story of Margaret Garner, who escaped enslavement in Northern Kentucky. Morrison was the first African American woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.
- Opal Lee, known as the “Grandmother of Juneteenth,” who campaigned for decades to make Juneteenth a federal holiday. In 2021, largely through her efforts, it was officially recognized. Lee received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2024 and was a 2022 Nobel Peace Prize nominee.
- Lonnie G. Bunch III, the first African American Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. As founding director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, Bunch oversaw its transformation from concept to reality. Since opening in 2016, the museum has welcomed more than 11 million visitors.
- Isabel Wilkerson, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author known for her works “The Warmth of Other Suns” and “Caste.” Wilkerson has been recognized for her narrative nonfiction that sheds light on history’s impact on the present.
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