Pulitzer Book Club Inclusion Guide
INCLUSION MILESTONES
1957
• Althea Gibson first Black tennis player to win Wimbledon
• Royal Ice Cream sit in to protest segregation.
• Johnny Cash, plays first prison concert; calls attention to reform
AUTHOR INSPIRATIONS
Can you identify the 1957 Pulitzer Fiction finalists?
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Featured Reader
No Fiction Pulitzer. JFK’s “Profiles in Courage” wins biography category.
“Profiles in Courage” is mini bios of eight U.S. senators.
Kennedy wrote “Profiles” during his leave of absence from the Senate to recover from back surgery.
“Profiles in Courage” is 272 pages; 3 listening hours.
“My fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country.” - JFK
“Profiles” about U.S. senators who took action to do the right thing despite interests of their party, state or personal ambition: John Quincy Adams, Daniel Webster, Thomas Benton, Sam Houston, Edmund G. Ross, Lucius Lamar, George Norris, and Robert A. Taft.
Celebrate what didn’t happen in 1954 with green bean casserole, deviled ham and an odd Jello mold.
“A man does what he must—in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers and pressures – and that is the basis of all human morality.” - JFK
Somewhere with mid-century modern (aka 50s era) furniture/decor.
What makes a work of fiction “distinguished”? Pulitzer-worthy? What makes a person courageous? How are courage and inclusion connected? Do your state’s U.S. senators work across party lines to do the right thing?
JFK Presidential Library and Museum in Boston.
“Profiles in Courage” TV series 1964 – 1965.
Research fiction published in 1953 and identify likely candidates for the 1954 Pulitzer Fiction Prize (which would have been awarded for Fiction written by an American in 1953.