Former President Barack Obama will be in Boston Sunday evening to receive the Profile in Courage Award at the JFK Library on the centennial of 35th president’s birth.
Caroline Kennedy, daughter of former President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, and Kennedy’s only grandson, Jack Schlossberg, will present the prestigious award to the former president as part of the centennial celebration of John F. Kennedy’s birth. Held at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston, the evening will include a special performance by James Taylor with Kim Taylor and Owen Young.
The website describes the award as “the nation’s pre-eminent award for elected officials and public servants.” “During a time of increasing public cynicism, recognizing and honoring our courageous political leaders has never been more important.”
The annual award has been given out since 1989. Past winners include Sen. John McCain, President Gerald Ford, Rep. John Lewis, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, Sen. Ted Kennedy, Rep. Gabby Giffords and President George H.W. Bush.
The award takes on a special significance this year, as it is the centennial of the birth of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy.
“It’s been more than half a century since John F. Kennedy asked us to cast aside our narrow self-interest and take up the chase of a greater ambition: our collective capacity to do big things, especially when it’s hard,” Obama told Boston Magazine in March when the award was announced. “It was a call to citizenship as true as the words of our founding and a conviction that helped guide me to public service as a younger man – a belief in the possibilities of our democracy and the power of what we, the people, can do together.”
The JFK Library has set up an online message book where people interested in congratulating the president can do so.
The event will kick off at 8:30 p.m. with a performance by James Taylor. Watch the live stream below:
