Profile in Courage Award
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The Profile in Courage Award is an award given to someone who displays the type of courage that John F. Kennedy described in his book of the same name. It is given to individuals (often elected officials) who, by acting in accord with their conscience, risked their careers or lives by pursuing a larger vision of the national, state or local interest in opposition to popular opinion or pressure from constituents or other local interests.
In May 2002, an unprecedented Profile in Courage Award was awarded to representatives of the NYPD, the New York City Fire Department, and the military as representatives of all of the people who acted to save the lives of others during the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. [link]
The winners of the award are selected by a bi-partisan committee named by the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation. It is generally awarded each year around the time of Kennedy's birthday (May 29) at a ceremony at the Kennedy Library in Boston. The award is generally presented by Kennedy's daughter Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg. The winner is presented with a sterling silver lantern made by Tiffany's which was designed by Ms. Schlossberg's husband Edwin Schlossberg. The lantern is patterned after the lanterns on the USS Constitution, the last sail-powered ship to remain part of the US Navy, which is permanently moored nearby.
The committee as of 2006 consists of:
- Michael Beschloss, author and historian
- David Burke, former president, CBS News
- Thad Cochran, U.S. Senator of Mississippi
- Marian Wright Edelman, President, Children’s Defense Fund
- Antonia Hernandez, president, California Community Foundation
- Al Hunt, Executive Editor, The Wall Street Journal
- Elaine Jones, Director-Counsel, NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund
- Caroline Bouvier Kennedy, President, John F. Kennedy Library Foundation
- Edward M. Kennedy, U.S. Senator of Massachusetts
- Paul G. Kirk, Jr., Chairman, Board of Directors, John F. Kennedy Library Foundation
- John Seigenthaler, Committee Chairman, Founder of the First Amendment Center
- Olympia Snowe, U.S. Senator of Maine
- Patricia M. Wald, former judge, International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia
Recipients
- 1990: Carl Elliott, Sr.
- 1991: Charles Weltner
- 1992: Lowell Weicker, Jr.
- 1993: James Florio
- 1994: Henry Gonzalez
- 1995: Michael Synar
- 1996: Corkin Cherubini
- 1997: Charles Price
- 1998: Nickolas C. Murnion; also, the signatories of the Good Friday Peace Agreement
- 1999: Russell Feingold and John McCain
- 2000: Hilda Solis
- 2001: John Lewis; Gerald Ford
- 2002: Kofi Annan; Dean Koldenhoven; the representatives of the NYPD, the FDNY, and the military who risked their lives on September 11, 2001
- 2003: Dan Ponder, Jr.; David Beasley; Roy Barnes
- 2004: Sima Samar; Cindy Watson; Paul Muegge
- 2005: Joseph Darby; Shirley Franklin; Bill Ratliff; Victor Yushchenko
- 2006: Alberto J. Mora; John Murtha
External links
- [John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award Offical Site]
- [Recipients]
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