PHOTO: Eva Longoria Parker Receives Freedom Award

Desperate Housewives star Eva Longoria Parker received a Legacy Award from the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tenn. last night. The actress was honored for her philanthropy and her advocacy for rights for Latinos. She posted the above photo from the dinner on her Twitter account.

When accepting her award, Longoria Parker drew parallels between African-American slavery and the plight of day workers today. "I'm doing a documentary now," she said, according to WREG, a local Memphis news station. "Children as young as eight are in the fields picking cotton, picking fruits and vegetables and allowed to [do] this and it's modern day slavery."

Longoria Parker has actively used Twitter to promote charitable causes. She teamed with Shaun King, the director of A Home in Haiti, a nonprofit organization that helps children in earthquake-ravaged nation, to create the TwitChange campaign last month. Celebrities participated in an online auction that allowed Twitter users to purchase a retweet, follow or mention by the celebrity Tweeters, or even a package of all three. According to CNN, the campaign raised $75-100,000 in the first 24 hours. More than 150 celebrities, including Justin Bieber and Kim Kardashian, have joined.

The seventh season of Desperate Housewives premiered on September 26 to 12.8 million viewers. –ISHITA SINGH