New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu was chosen to receive the 2018 John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award for his role in removing four Confederate monuments in New Orleans, the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation said Tuesday.
Landrieu will be honored at a ceremony at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum on May 20. The award will be presented by the president’s grandson, Jack Schlossberg.
“Mayor Landrieu turned a difficult and divisive issue into an opportunity to reflect on our nation’s history and to recommit ourselves to our founding principles of equality and justice,’’ Schlossberg said in a statement. “The mayor explained what the monuments represent — a dark chapter in our history that should neither be forgotten, misunderstood, nor glorified. In a year marked by continued racial injustice, in a moment of misguided national leadership and heightened division, Mayor Landrieu’s courage stands out brightly as an affirmative step in the right direction. President Kennedy believed that, at its best, politics was a noble profession — Mayor Landrieu is living proof of that bold proposition.’’
Landrieu was elected mayor of New Orleans in 2010. Following the 2015 mass shooting at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C., he sought City Council support to remove statues of Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis and two other Confederate monuments — a bold move that was met by harsh opposition.
When the fourth monument came down in 2017, Landrieu marked the occasion by giving a speech that reflected on the history of slavery in the United States.
“This is not about politics. This is not about blame or retaliation,’’ Landrieu said. “This is not a naive quest to solve all our problems at once. This is, however, about showing the whole world that we as a city and as a people are able to acknowledge, understand, reconcile, and, most important, choose a better future for ourselves, making straight what has been crooked and making right what was wrong.’’
The John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award, created in 1989, is presented annually to public servants “who have made courageous decisions of conscience without regard for the personal or professional consequences.’’
Emily Sweeney can be reached at esweeney@globe.com.
