Aretha Franklin and Lena Horne were among eight recipients of Essence awards at a New York City ceremony presided over by Patti LaBelle and Danny Glover. The annual awards sponsored by Essence magazine were created in 1987 to focus attention on the achievements of black women. Other recipients Friday were Carol Moseley-Braun, who last year became the first black woman elected to the U.S. Senate; Olympic gold medalist Gail Devers; "Sweet" Alice Harris, community activist and founder of Parents of Watts; Tina Turner; Rosa Parks; and Corla Wilson-Hawkins, an educator and community activist. Parks, frail at 80 years old, recalled how "we were sometimes physically hurt and killed just because we wanted to be free people." Her refusal to give up her bus seat to a white man in Montgomery, Ala., in 1955 triggered a bus boycott, considered a turning point in the civil-rights struggle.
