BOSTON — Former President Gerald Ford, roundly condemned in 1974 for pardoning his predecessor, Richard Nixon, was honored Monday for that act by the John F. Kennedy Library with its Profile in Courage award.
Caroline Kennedy presented a beaming Ford, 87, with a silver lantern emblematic of the award. She said Ford had proved that "politics can be a noble profession" with his "controversial decision of conscience" to issue the pardon. She said Ford's act was in the tradition honored by her father's 1956 book, "Profiles in Courage."
Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., told the audience at the John F. Kennedy Library: "I was one of those who spoke out against his action then. But time has a way of clarifying past events, and now we see that President Ford was right. His courage and dedication to our country made it possible for us to begin the process of healing and put the tragedy of Watergate behind us."
The 12-year-old award has been given to a Republican only once before — last year, to Sen. John McCain of Arizona. Past winners have been recognized for work on racial justice, the environment, poverty, peace in Northern Ireland and campaign finance legislation. Another award Monday, to Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., fit that pattern: Caroline Kennedy recognized him for 40 years of "steadfast devotion to the dream of an integrated society."
The awards to Ford and Lewis carry $25,000 stipends.
Ford said the award came as a surprise. The idea of honoring him was also a surprise to some of the 11 members of the award committee, which includes two Kennedys, three former Kennedy aides and two Republicans.
Ted Kennedy said that he had awakened to the idea after reading an entry in an essay contest on political courage, an essay on Ford written by a high school student, Matthew Minor of Port Henry, N.Y. Kennedy said that he had probably not thought about the Nixon pardon in 25 years but that he now saw it differently because of the "whole impeachment furor" over President Clinton, which, he said, had absorbed government institutions and driven "from political debate all national and international concerns."
Ford's only reference Monday to the pardon itself — which contributed to his loss in the 1976 presidential election — was to say that historians would argue about it forever, though he said the awards committee "has displayed its own kind of courage."
In accepting his award, Lewis recalled that 40 years ago to the day, after a beating at the Montgomery, Ala., bus station — which was also suffered by John Seigenthaler, then an aide to Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy and now chairman of the awards committee — he and other demonstrators were huddled in a church, besieged by a mob. He said the demonstrators knew that "if we continued the Freedom Rides, we would face arrest or worse. And if we stopped the rides, freedom would be denied."
But he said he was comforted by the line from the 30th Psalm, "Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning." The next morning, he said, President Kennedy federalized the Alabama National Guard and sent marshals so the riders could go on to Jackson, Miss.