WASHINGTON — The Rev. Joseph Lowery, a longtime civil rights activist, was overwhelmed after President Obama draped the Presidential Medal of Freedom around his neck Wednesday (Aug. 12) and is still grappling with all it meant to him.

But he quickly figured out what it said about Obama.

“I think it’s a credit to President Obama that in his first class of awardees, he included someone who can be viewed as a symbol of the struggle,” said Lowery, who co-founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference with the late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

The nation’s first black president called Lowery “a giant of the Moses generation of civil rights leaders,” and highlighted a similar movement in South Africa by honoring former Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who is well-known for his anti-apartheid activism.

“As a man of the cloth, he has drawn the respect and admiration of a diverse congregation,” reads the citation honoring Tutu. “He helped lead South Africa through a turning point in modern history, and with an unshakeable humility and firm commitment to our common humanity, he helped heal wounds and lay the foundation for a new nation.”

Obama used Wednesday’s White House ceremony as an opportunity to highlight 16 “agents of change.” Many were “firsts” — Sandra Day O’Connor, first female Supreme Court justice; Sidney Poitier, first African-American to win the Academy Award for best actor; the late Harvey Milk, first openly gay official elected in a major U.S. city.

But Obama’s selection of two prominent black religious leaders made the ceremony a particularly teachable moment about “living representatives of a nonviolent challenge to racism,” said the Rev. Cheryl Townsend Gilkes, professor of African-American studies at Colby College in Maine.

“It is a teaching gesture that challenges all of us to learn why these people matter,” she said.

The Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor, was initially created in 1945 by President Harry Truman, who recognized notable service during wartime. President Kennedy reintroduced the tradition in 1963 to honor distinguished peacetime civilian service, but was assassinated before he could present them.

Like Obama, presidential predecessors used the prestigious award to highlight achievements of politicians, sports figures and other civic leaders.

Former Sen. J. William Fulbright was Clinton’s first honoree in 1993, followed later that year by former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Colin Powell and former Supreme Court justices William Brennan and Thurgood Marshall. Clinton’s religious honorees included the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Chicago’s Cardinal Joseph Bernardin.

In 2002, President George W. Bush’s first honorees included former South African President Nelson Mandela, opera star Placido Domingo and former first lady Nancy Reagan. Over the years of his presidency, he honored Pope John Paul II and Mormon leader Gordon B. Hinckley, president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Obama said his choices, though varying in background and expertise, commonly demonstrate lives “well lived” without seeking glory.

“And what unites them is a belief … that our lives are what we make of them; that no barriers of race, gender, or physical infirmity can restrain the human spirit; and that the truest test of a person’s life is what we do for one another,” he said.

Lowery said Tutu’s inclusion showed the president’s attention to worldwide peace.

“Tutu’s presence, I think is another feather in President Obama’s cap, that he recognized the global nature of the struggle,” he said. “For a president who inherited two wars, I think it’s not surprising that he would recognize the global nature of the struggle for peace and justice.”

Others of the 16 medal recipients included the late Jack Kemp, a former Republican congressman known for aiding troubled urban communities; Muhammad Yunus, an economist who has led anti-poverty crusades in Bangladesh; and Sen. Ted Kennedy, noted for his pursuit of school and health care reforms.

“It sounds like a list of people for the healing of the nation,” Gilkes, the Colby College professor, said of all of Obama’s choices.

Lowery, who delivered the benediction at Obama’s inauguration, considered himself “ordinary” compared to others on the president’s list, but surmised there might be a message in that, too.

“Here I am standing up there with famous actors like Poitier and bishops like Tutu and scientists and first woman to serve on the Supreme Court,” he said. “A small-town preacher who is just an ordinary fella. That ought to encourage ordinary people everywhere.”