Longtime Louisville activist Suzy Post will receive Metro Louisville's 2014 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Freedom Award.Post has a long history of social activism in Louisville. She was president of what is now the ACLU of Kentucky and later the founding president of the Metropolitan Housing Coalition. She's also the last surviving plaintiff in the 1970s lawsuit that forced the city's public schools to desegregate, the city said.In October, longtime Louisville journalist Keith Runyon paid homage to Post's work inthis commentary for WFPL.In a statement, post said: “I am honored to be receiving this award in the shadows cast by the great Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela. In that spirit, I welcome the Mayor’s efforts to erase the boundary lines between the West End and the rest of our lovely city. I will be pleased if I can work with him to make us one whole community.”Mayor Greg Fischer said Post's work showed what "a true citizen advocate can do to change a community and society.“Her unwavering pursuit of justice and equality for people of all colors, gender and beliefs has truly helped push society forward and has made Louisville a more livable city for all of its citizens.”Post will receive the Freedom Award on Jan. 19 at Whitney Hall in the Kentucky Center. The award will be part of an arts celebration pegged to Martin Luther King Jr. Day and will include music, dance and more. Past Freedom Award recipients include state Rep. Darryl Owens, former Courier-Journal associate editor Merv Aubespin, Urban League President Ben Richmond, Louisville NAACP President Raoul Cunningham and former state Sen. Georgia Davis Powers.
