Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter said Farrow was honored for her work to raise awareness of the plight of children in war-torn regions and on behalf of refugees around the globe. Farrow was given the award at a gala at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts.
The annual award is named after Philadelphia-born contralto Marian Anderson, who in 1955 was the first black soloist at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. Previous winners have included Harry Belafonte, Sidney Poitier, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Gere.
Officials said Farrow has traveled to the Darfur region of Sudan 13 times since 2004 and written about the violence that the United Nations says has caused some 300,000 deaths and forced 2.7 million people from their homes. Her travels and writings about Chad, Rwanda, Central African Republic, Uganda, Congo and Haiti were also cited.
Farrow told The Philadelphia Inquirer that a hijab protection amulet she wears around her neck was a gift from a Darfur woman raped by militiamen who had just killed her baby.
"When I heard her story, my life changed," Farrow said. "I didn't know I could write op-ed pieces. I didn't know that I could take pictures. I didn't know I could give speeches."
She has a website, miafarrow.org, that aggregates news and reports from Africa's trouble spots and provides links on how to help, and has created a Darfur Archives including her films of songs, dances, and agricultural methods as well as stories of elders.