Disney Legend Floyd Norman to Be Honored with Ford Freedom Award

The 19th Annual Ford Freedom Award ceremony will put the spotlight on veteran Disney animator Floyd Norman next Monday, May 22. Norman, a Ford Freedom Scholar, will be in attendance at the invitation-only event at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit, Michigan.

The award reception will include a nameplate installation honoring Norman and his fellow honoree, the late Pulitzer-prize winning Fences playwright August Wilson. There will also be a special screening of the 2016 documentary Floyd Norman: An Animated Life.

The Freedom Award is presented by Ford Motor Company, in collaboration with Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History and Detroit Newspapers in Education, to celebrate the positive contributions of African American men through a statewide essay contest that will award up to $10,000 in student scholarships. More than 1,700 Michigan middle school students will attend the Ford Freedom Award Scholar’s Experience, where the winners will receive their scholarship awards on May 23.

Read more about Floyd Norman’s remarkable life and the documentary thereof in Tom McLean’s Animation Magazine article here.

Floyd Norman