33rd annual Freedom Awards at Civil Rights Museum

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Thursday was the biggest night of the year at the National Civil Rights Museum, for the annual Freedom Award ceremony.

This year, the museum honored three people with the Freedom Award: civil and human rights activist and broadcasting executive Xernona Clayton; Sherrilyn Ifill, the president and director-counsel emeritus of the NAACP; and Academy Award-winning filmmaker Spike Lee.

WREG got a chance to speak with Lee and actor Chris Tucker on the red carpet before the ceremony.

“We’ve got to acknowledge our people and what we do,” Lee said. “We’ve got to move forward and we’ve got to vote too. We’ve got to register to vote.”

“It’s a celebration of America because Dr. Martin Luther King and Ms. Xernona Clayton and Spike Lee, who’s being honored tonight, touched America and the world. It’s American culture,” Tucker said.

This is the 33rd year for the Freedom Award.

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