WASHINGTON ( CNN ) -- A pioneer , a preacher , an activist and an athlete were among 16 people who President Obama honored Wednesday with the Presidential Medal of Freedom , the nation 's highest civilian honor . Joe Medicine Crow-High Bird , the last living Plains Indian war chief , receives his medal from President Obama . `` This is a chance for me and for the United States of America to say thank you to some of the finest citizens of this country and of all countries , '' Obama told the audience assembled for the ceremony at the White House . `` At a moment when cynicism and doubt too often prevail , when our obligations to one another are too often forgotten , when the road ahead can seem too long or hard to tread , these extraordinary men and women , these agents of change , remind us that excellence is not beyond our abilities , that hope lies around the corner and that justice can still be won in the forgotten corners of this world , '' the president said . `` They remind us that we each have it within our powers to fulfill dreams , to advance the dreams of others and to remake the world for our children , '' he said . Watch Obama award medals » . The Presidential Medal of Freedom , an annual award , was created after World War II when President Truman wanted to honor civilian service during the war . The 16 honored at the ceremony Wednesday afternoon were : . • Nancy Goodman Brinker : The death of her sister from breast cancer prompted Brinker to found Susan G. Komen for the Cure , which has grown to become the world 's leading breast cancer grass-roots organization . • Pedro José Greer Jr. : Among the many hats Greer wears , he is the founder of Camillus Health Concern , an agency that provides medical care to more than 10,000 homeless patients every year in Miami , Florida . • Stephen Hawking : The internationally recognized theoretical physicist has spent his career making complex scientific concepts accessible to the layman , including penning the best-selling book `` A Brief History of Time '' and its updated version , `` A Briefer History of Time . '' • Jack Kemp : The quarterback-turned-politician was honored posthumously for the years he spent , leading up to his death in May , raising awareness of and encouraging development in underserved communities . See photos of this year 's winners » . • Sen. Edward Kennedy : During his 46 years as a lawmaker , Kennedy has called health care reform the `` cause of his life , '' championing nearly every health care bill enacted by Congress in the past five decades . However , Kennedy missed Wednesday 's ceremony because of his ongoing battle with brain cancer , the White House said . His sister Eunice Kennedy Shriver , who died Tuesday , received the Medal of Freedom in 1984 from President Reagan . • Billie Jean King : With her victory over Bobby Riggs in the `` Battle of the Sexes '' tennis match in 1973 , and in the years since , King has champion gender equality not only in sports but in all areas of public life . • The Rev . Joseph Lowery : With the Rev . Martin Luther King Jr. , the civil rights icon co-founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference , a leading civil rights organization , and has continued to highlight the cause worldwide , including speaking out forcefully against apartheid in South Africa until its end in 1994 . • Joe Medicine Crow-High Bird : The last living Plains Indian war chief and author of seminal works in Native American history is also the last person alive to have received direct oral testimony from a participant in the Battle of the Little Bighorn : his grandfather , a scout for Gen. George Custer . • Harvey Milk : The first openly gay person elected into office in a major U.S. city , Milk is revered as a pioneer of the lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgender civil rights movement . He was honored posthumously . • Sandra Day O'Connor : At a time when women rarely entered the legal profession , O'Connor graduated Stanford Law School third in her class and went on to become the first woman ever to sit on the U.S. Supreme Court . • Sidney Poitier : The first African-American to win a Best Actor Academy Award , Poitier also broke ground by insisting that the crew in one of his films be at least 50 percent African-American and by starring in the first mainstream movie portraying interracial marriage as acceptable . • Chita Rivera : The winner of two Tony Awards , Rivera was also the first Hispanic to receive the Kennedy Center Honor , awarded annually for exemplary lifetime achievement in the performing arts . • Mary Robinson : Since ending her term as the first female president of Ireland , Robinson has headed Realizing Rights , an initiative that ensures that human rights is not forgotten as nations chart a course toward globalization . • Janet Davison Rowley : Her work on chromosome abnormalities in human leukemia and lymphoma has led to dramatically improved survival rates for previously incurable cancers . • Desmond Tutu : An Anglican archbishop and a leading anti-apartheid activist , Tutu is widely regarded as `` South Africa 's moral conscience '' and chaired the country 's Truth and Reconciliation Commission when it was created in 1995 to discover and reveal past wrongdoing . • Muhammad Yunus : A Bangladeshi economist and winner of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize , Yunus pioneered the use of micro-loans to provide credit to the poor without collateral , a successful model that has been emulated worldwide .
Medal of Freedom is nation 's highest civilian honor . It was created after World War II to honor civilian service during that war . The medal has been awarded since the 1950s, and it can be earned by serving in any branch of the military or as a member of an organization such as the United States Coast Guard, National Park Service