Members of the University of Alabama community should stop to view the sterling silver Tiffany & Company lantern now permanently displayed on the second floor of the Amelia Gayle Gorgas Library. The lantern is the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award, presented in 1990 to Former U.S. Congressman Carl Atwood Elliott, Sr. (1913-1999), an Alabama native and the award’s first recipient. The John F. Kennedy Library Foundation presents the Profile in Courage Award each year to a public official that demonstrates political courage in leadership. Because of Congressman Elliott’s passion for education and reading, his family graciously entrusted his award to UA Libraries so that it may inspire students at his alma mater.

The Profile in Courage Award is a great honor with a carefully selected name and design. The award is named after Profiles of Courage, a Pulitzer Prize-winning book written by John F. Kennedy in the 1950s. The award’s appearance is based on the lantern aboard the U.S. Navy’s first commissioned ship, the U.S.S. Constitution, a nod to President John F. Kennedy’s naval service. The form of a lantern was also selected because it holds cultural significance as a symbol of light and truth, guiding people through times of darkness. Congressman Elliott certainly served as a beacon of hope for educational equality when the Deep …show more content…
He worked odd jobs to pay for his education and even had to sleep in an abandoned building as a student. Despite these obstacles, Carl Elliott was elected UA Student Government Association president in 1936, allegedly without backing from the Machine, a secret society of elite fraternities and sororities that controls campus politics even to this day. Elliott left the University with an undergraduate and law degree, the first person in his family to do