Charles H. Wright Museum, in partnership with Ford Motor Company, launched the Ford Freedom Award program in 1999 to create a forum to celebrate and recognize individuals whose achievements brought forth lasting and positive change for African Americans – and the world. The Ford Freedom Award is an annual fundraiser for The Wright Museum, one of the world’s largest institutions dedicated to the African-American experience.
This year’s Ford Freedom Award will be presented posthumously to Honoree Dr. Dorothy Irene Height, American administrator, educator and prominent leader of the civil rights movement. Height was considered the “godmother of the civil rights movement” and was so honored by President Barack Obama in his remarks upon her death. She was one of the organizers of the famed 1963 March on Washington. Throughout her life she placed focus on issues concerning African-American women, unemployment, illiteracy and voter awareness. Height was an active leader of the National Council of Negro Women for several decades. She received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1994 and the Congressional Gold Medal in 2004. The icon, who died in 2010, will be enshrined in Detroit history as her name is installed in the Museum’s Ring of Genealogy. Ingrid Saunders Jones, chair of the National Council of Negro Women will accept the award.
The Ford Freedom Award Scholar is Jessica O. Matthews. Matthews earned an MBA from Harvard Business School and is listed on more than 10 patents and/or patents pending. Her first invention, the SOCCKET, is an energy generating soccer ball that she invented at age 19. The CEO power player founded Uncharted Power, an award-winning renewable power company that specializes in harnessing energy from motion to create ecosystems of power for communities around the world.
Ford Freedom Rising Star Honoree is young entrepreneur Asia Newson, a Detroit teen who started a candle-selling business at age 5. She now manufactures her own candles, has a small army of sales kids, and can boast of $100,000 in projected gross revenues.
These resilient honorees have taken their rightful places in spaces where, as young women, their presence was deemed unlikely. In doing so, they exemplify the success that is possible when passion meets perseverance – a testament to their artistic talents and to the personal courage that exemplifies “Black Girl Magic.”
The Ford Freedom Award program is made possible by a grant from Ford Motor Company Fund, the charitable arm of Ford Motor Company.
THIS EVENT IS INVITATION ONLY.
