3 women to receive Freedom Awards in Memphis

[July 14, 2010]  MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) -- A civil rights activist, a Nobel Peace Prize winner and an actress have been named winners of this year's Freedom Awards.

The awards from the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tenn., were announced Tuesday and will be given out in an Oct. 6 ceremony.

Honoree Dorothy Cotton was the education director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference from 1960 to 1968 and was at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis when Martin Luther King Jr. was fatally shot on April 4, 1968.

Wangari Maathai of Kenya founded the Green Belt Movement, which has helped plant more than 40 million trees at farms, schools and churches. She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004.

Actress Eva Longoria Parker founded Eva's Heroes, a charity that helps developmentally disabled children.

[Associated Press]

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.