On June 9, 1980, Archbishop Iakovos, the spiritual leader of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of North and South America, stood inside the White House to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Jimmy Carter. The nation’s highest civilian honor recognized his decades of profound human rights advocacy, ecumenical leadership, and dedication to American civil liberties.
His most powerful, defining act of moral courage occurred fifteen years prior during the height of the Civil Rights Movement. On March 15, 1965, Archbishop Iakovos traveled to Alabama to march shoulder-to-shoulder with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. during the second Selma march, directly defying intense political pressure and threats of violence. When the LIFE magazine cover captured the striking image of the bearded, black-robed Orthodox prelate clasping hands with Dr. King, it delivered a massive jolt of mainstream religious legitimacy to the movement, forever cementing the vital alliance between the Black civil rights struggle and international religious communities.
