The Profiles in Courage Award is an award given to someone who displays the type of courage the John F. Kennedy described in his book of the same name. It is given to elected officials who, acting in accord with their conscience, risk their careers by pursuing a larger vision of the national, state or local interest in opposition to popular opinion or powerful pressures from their constituents. The winners of the award are selected by a bi-partisan committee named by the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation. It is generally awarded each year around the time of Kennedy's birthday (May 29) at a ceremony at the Kennedy Library in Boston. The award is generally presented by Kennedy's daughter Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg.

The winner is presented with a sterling silver lantern made by Tiffany's which was designed by Ms. Schlossberg's husband Edwin Schlossberg. The lantern is patterned after the lanterns on the USS Constitution, the last sail-powered ship to remain part of the US Navy, which is permanently moored nearby.

The committee As of 2005 consists of:

• Michael Beschloss, author and historian
• David Burke, former president, CBS News
• Thad Cochran, U.S. Senator of Mississippi
• Marian Wright Edelman, President, Children’s Defense Fund
• Antonia Hernandez , president, California Community Foundation
• Al Hunt, Executive Editor, Wall Street Journal
• Nancy L. Johnson, U.S. Congresswoman of Connecticut
• Elaine Jones , Director-Counsel, NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund
• Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg, President, John F. Kennedy Library Foundation
• Edward M. Kennedy, U.S. Senator of Massachusetts
• Paul G. Kirk , Jr., Chairman, Board of Directors, John F. Kennedy Library Foundation
• John Seigenthaler, Committee Chairman, Founder of the First Amendment Center
• Olympia Snowe, U.S. Senator of Maine
• Patricia M. Wald, former judge, International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia