Civil rights museum honors Michelle Obama, grassroots group

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Former first lady Michelle Obama and The Poor People’s Campaign have been chosen to receive Freedom Awards from the National Civil Rights Museum in Tennessee.

The museum said Wednesday that Obama and campaign’s two leaders, the Rev. William Barber and the Rev. Liz Theoharis, will be honored during a virtual ceremony on Oct. 14.

The awards are given out annually by the museum, located in Memphis. The museum is situated on the grounds of the former Lorraine Motel, where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was fatally shot on April 4, 1968.

Obama is a lawyer and writer who became the first Black first lady when her husband, former President Barack Obama, was elected in 2008. She has been an advocate for healthy families, service members, higher education and international adolescent girls’ education.

The Poor People’s Campaign works to combat systemic racism, poverty, ecological devastation, militarism and religious nationalism, the museum said in a news release.