APA President Nadine J. Kaslow, PhD, presents an APA Presidential Citation on Sept. 19, 2014, to Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga.
Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., was awarded a Presidential Citation for over five decades of courageous, trailblazing leadership in the civil rights movement and for serving as a powerful voice for the disenfranchised.
Lewis, you epitomize our association’s values to strive for “social justice, diversity and inclusion.” From your early days as a heroic young Freedom Rider, you have fought a long, hard struggle to end racial discrimination and segregation. As a member of Congress, you introduced and gained bipartisan support for legislation to ensure that sexual orientation and gender identity no longer provide a basis for discriminating against prospective foster and adoptive parents and that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth have access to a secure family placement. On the House Ways and Means Committee, you helped improve our child welfare system, eliminate pay disparities for women and aid disadvantaged families. You have been a stalwart supporter of universal access to health care and efforts to eliminate health disparities. For your bravery and tenacity as a civil rights leader, you deservedly were awarded the Medal of Freedom by President Obama and the only John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award for Lifetime Achievement ever granted.