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Dalai Lama receives 2009 International Freedom Award

The Commercial Appeal

The Dalai Lama is presented the 2009 International Freedom Award from the National Civil Rights Museum by JR Hyde III, right, Wednesday, 23 September 2009, in Memphis, Tennessee. At left is Rev. Benjamin Hooks, a civil rights leader and former executive director of the NAACP.AP/Mark Humphrey/US

The Dalai Lama accepted his International Freedom Award from the National Civil Rights Museum today, showing his appreciation by donating his $50,000 honorarium to the museum.

The leader-in-exile of the Tibetan government, the Dalai Lama toured the museum prior to the award ceremony with an entourage including museum chairman and former NAACP director Benjamin L Hooks, singer India.Arie and Rev Samuel B Kyles.

Kyles, who was with Dr Martin Luther King Jr in the hour before his 1968 death, described the scene for the Dalai Lama while standing beside him on balcony of the Lorraine Motel, the museum façade. It was where King stood when felled by a sniper’s bullet.

The Dalai Lama, who said he often uses King and Mahatma Gandhi “as examples of freedom fighters,” later said he loved Kyle’s description of King’s legacy: “You can kill the dreamer, but the dream will never die.”

Copyright © 2009 The EW Scripps Co.

Published in The Commercial Appeal