U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver II has been selected to receive the distinguished Harry S. Truman Good Neighbor Award, the highest honor bestowed by the Harry S. Truman Good Neighbor Award Foundation. The award will be presented in a ceremony on Friday, May 4, 2018, at the Kansas City Marriott in Kansas City, Missouri.
“I do appreciate this unbelievably big-league honor even if my contributions seem minor league when compared to those who have previously received this gold-plated award,” said Congressman Cleaver.
The Harry S. Truman Good Neighbor Award Foundation honors a prominent individual who has “promoted good relations among all races, nations and classes of people and who exemplifies the qualities of Harry S. Truman.”
President Bill Clinton accepted the Harry S. Truman Good Neighbor Award in 2013. Former Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta received the award in 2014 for his accomplishments in the area of national defense as did Gary Sinise in 2011 for his work with disabled veterans and with Operation International Children.
Cleaver grew up in Wichita Falls, where his father, Lucky Cleaver, still resides. As a high school junior, Cleaver led the first civil rights march in Wichita Falls when 50 students joined him in protesting segregated movie theaters in downtown Wichita Falls.
Cleaver was captain of both the 1963 football and track teams during his senior year at Booker T. Washington High School. An anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tear in a district championship game in Ft. Worth, TX dramatically reduced his college football career options. He accepted a football scholarship to Murray State University and although he finished the first season, he would later say, “surgery stopped the knee pain but it also halted my ability to compete at a high level. There was no comeback from my setback”.
Congressman Cleaver is now serving his seventh term representing Missouri’s Fifth Congressional District. He is a member of the exclusive House Financial Services Committee, the Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Housing and Insurance, and also a Senior Whip of the Democratic Caucus.
His history as the first African American Mayor of Kansas City, Missouri includes redeveloping an historic district known as the 18th & Vine Jazz Redevelopment District, and the reconstruction and beautification of Brush Creek.
Cleaver has devoted his efforts to honoring and commemorating World War I. The World War I Centennial Commission was created in 2013 by legislation, sponsored by Congressman Cleaver and Congressman Ted Poe (R-TX). Cleaver was also the co-author of the 2014 WWI American Veterans Centennial Commemorative Coin Act. The coin was struck this past November.