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Nobel Peace Prize winner Dr. Wangari Maathai will share the stage with “Desperate Housewives” actress Eva Longoria Parker and civil rights pioneer Dorothy Cotton when the National Civil Rights Museum hands out its Freedom Awards on Oct. 6.
It was the first time the museum named three women as winners of the annual awards.
Maathai of Kenya will be the International Freedom Award winner with a $50,000 stipend from the Hyde Family Foundation. She won a Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 as founder of the Greenbelt Movement, which has assisted planting more than 40 million trees on community lands including farms, schools and church compounds. The movement also carried out pro-democracy activities including registering voters and pressing for constitutional reform and freedom of expression.
Parker, who plays Hispanic housewife Gabrielle Solis on TV, is winner of the Legacy Award for a long history of supporting Hispanic causes and for financial and other support for a wide range of charitable activities including donations to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Her award will include a $25,000 stipend from FedEx.
Cotton was one of the highest ranking women in the civil rights movement as education director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference under Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. She will receive the National Freedom Award that includes a $25,000 stipend from International Paper.
