Presidential Medal of Freedom

The Medal of Freedom is the highest civilian honor in the United States. Dylan received it in the same ceremony as a varied group of others, among them the novelist Toni Morrison, the astronaut and senator John Glenn, and former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. Obama spoke of being a fan and of what Dylan's music had meant to him as a young man, and Dylan, wearing dark glasses, accepted the medal quietly. The honor followed other official recognitions, including a special Pulitzer Prize citation in 2008, and came two years after he had played at the White House in a concert celebrating the music of the civil rights movement. It placed his songs firmly among American cultural achievements several years before the Nobel committee did the same on an international stage.