Reuters reports that former President Barack Obama is heading to Boston this evening to accept the Kennedy Foundation’s “Profile in Courage” award. He is the third United States President to receive the award, the others being Gerald Ford in 2001 and George H.W. Bush in 2014.
The award was created in 1989 by the Kennedy family. According to the Kennedy Library’s website, the award’s purpose is to:
“The award recognizes a public official (or officials) at the federal, state or local level whose actions demonstrate the qualities of politically courageous leadership in the spirit of Profiles in Courage, President Kennedy’s 1957 Pulitzer prize-winning book, which recounts the stories of eight U.S. Senators who risked their careers by embracing unpopular positions for the greater good.”
Caroline Kennedy, daughter of President John F. Kennedy, gave a statement as to why Obama is receiving the award:
“President Kennedy called on a new generation of Americans to give their talents to the service of the country … With exceptional dignity and courage, President Obama has carried that torch into our own time, providing young people of all backgrounds with an example they can emulate.”
Kennedy served as Obama’s ambassador to Japan while he was President.
Obama has long been demonized by a Republican Congress, who unabashedly did everything they could to obstruct and limit his power in an attempt to de-legitimize his presidency. Our current President, Donald Trump, made his first true foray into politics by pushing the racist and completely unsubstantiated “birther conspiracy.”
Obama will receive the award at 8:30 PM EDT tonight, Sunday, May 7. The Profile in Courage website will livestream his speech from Boston here. Obama has received many prestigious awards in his time; you can watch his acceptance speech for the Nobel Peace Prize, which he received in 2009, below:
Featured image via Flickr user Gage Skidmore / CC BY-SA 2.0
