Aaron Copland
Copland was a strong supporter of liberal ideas. In the early 1950s, he and other famous writers, actors and intellectuals were accused of supporting communism. Public opinion changed, though. In 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson presented him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. It is America's highest award to civilians. Aaron Copland died in 1990 at the age of 90. But his music lives on.