The honorees are:
• Former President George H.W. Bus
• Chancellor Angela Merkel, the chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, who was not at the White House East Room ceremony.
• Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), a legendary figure in the U.S. civil rights movement.
• John H. Adams, co-founder of the Natural Resources Defense Council in 1970.
• Maya Angelou, an author, poet, educator, producer, actress, filmmaker, and civil rights activist.
• Warren Buffett, one of the richest and most successful business executives in the nation.
• Jasper Johns, a famous U.S. artist.
• Gerda Weissmann Klein is an author who has written about her Holocaust experience.
• Dr. Tom Little, an ophthalmologist, who was murdered on Aug. 6, 2010 by the Taliban in Afghanistan, along with nine other members of a team returning from a humanitarian mission to provide vision care.
• Yo-Yo Ma, one of the best known cellists in the world.
• Sylvia Mendez, a civil rights activist.
• Stan “The Man” Musial, a St. Louis Cardinals baseball star and Hall of Fame member
• Bill Russell a former Boston Celtics basketball team star and coach.
• Jean Kennedy Smith, the sister of President Kennedy, and former ambassador to Ireland, who founded VSA, a nonprofit organization affiliated with the John F. Kennedy Center promoting the artistic talents of children, youth and adults with disabilities.
• John J. Sweeney, the former president of the AFL-CIO.