Sen. Daniel Inouye will be honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in Washington next week. Inouye died last December. Other posthumous recipients include Sally Ride, the astronaut who died last year, and Bayard Rustin, the civil rights activist who died in 1987. 

The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the nation’s highest civilian honor. Inouye already earned the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military award. 

The rest of the honorees, in alphabetical order: 

Chicago Cubs baseball Hall of Famer Ernie Banks; Veteran Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee; President Bill Clinton; Nobel Prize-winning psychologist Daniel Kahneman; Former Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind.; Country music legend Loretta Lynn; Nobel Prize-winning chemist Mario Molina; Jazz icon Arturo Sandoval; Former UNC basketball coach Dean Smith; Feminist writer and equal-rights activist Gloria Steinem; Minister and civil rights activist Cordy Tindell “C.T.” Vivian; Judge Patricia Wald, who was the first woman appointed to the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C.; and talk-show magnate Oprah Winfrey.

Photo: Sen. Dan Inouye. (Civil Beat)

— Adrienne LaFrance