The Arab American National Museum celebrates Helen Thomas with a warm reception & a statue

Ibtisam Barakat ابتسام بركات From the Arab American National Muesum: on Flikr -- All the photos from the book awards ceremony and honoring Helen Thomas in Washington, DC on Monday, October 4, 2010.

Arab American National Museum's Photostream

The Arab American National Museum raised the $10,000 it was seeking to finance a statue of Helen Thomas to be placed in its Dearborn building across from City Hall. The sculpture is by former White House photographer and Virginia-based artist Susan Tinsley McElhinney

Sam Donaldson and Ralph Nader and the award winning Palestinian American poet Ibtisam Barakat, author of Tasting the Sky, were some of the notable people who attended the ceremony honoring Helen Thomas at the Arab American National Museum.

Helen Thomas, the recently retired “Dean of the White House Press Corps,” is a legendary journalist and Arab American. Thomas was born in Kentucky to Lebanese immigrant parents but raised primarily in Detroit, where she graduated from Wayne State University.

Thomas covered presidential administrations from Eisenhower through Obama, working more than five decades for United Press International (UPI) and later for Hearst Newspapers. She marked her 90th birthday in August.

Thomas is considered a pioneer for women in journalism. Unfortunately Thomas was forced to resign from Hearst Newspapers in June after telling a rabbi on camera that Israelis should "get the hell out of Palestine" and "go home" to "Poland, Germany and America, and everywhere else." Thomas later apologized for her comments (which had very much been taken out of context)

Helen Thomas has received numerous awards through out the years and more than 30 honorary degrees. In 1976, Thomas was named one of the World Almanac's 25 Most Influential Women in America. The White House Correspondent's Association honored her in 1998 by establishing the Helen Thomas Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2000, her alma mater, Wayne State University, established an award for journalists in her honor, the Helen Thomas Spirit of Diversity award. In 2007, Thomas received a Foremother Award from the National Research Center for Women & Families.