Jack Kemp Foundation

Kemp Legacy Program

Jack Kemp – professional quarterback, Congressman, cabinet secretary, and vice presidential candidate – has been called one of the most influential figures in American history. President Ronald Reagan was not alone in his belief that “Jack Kemp’s ideas helped fuel us to go further into the future than we ever dreamed possible.” In awarding Kemp the Medal of Freedom after his death in 2009, President Barack Obama said that “his legacy serves as a shining example for all those who strive to challenge conventional wisdom, stay true to themselves, and better our nation.”

The Jack Kemp Foundation is dedicated to advancing the American idea of democracy, freedom, growth and hope that Kemp believed to be universal values uniting all people of good will. The cornerstone of the Foundation’s work is the Legacy Project, which encompasses three distinctive complementary components:

The Jack Kemp Collection. The Library of Congress, the world’s premier archival institution, will provide a permanent home for some four hundred boxes of correspondence, speeches, notes, journal entries, articles, manuscripts, etc. that make up the written record of Kemp’s work and ideas from 1970 to 2009. The archives will be open to researchers at the Library, and with support from the Foundation, will be digitized and made accessible to the public through the Internet.

The Jack Kemp Fellowship. Among the many attributes of the Library of Congress is the platform it provides for scholars to distill wisdom from the Library’s rich resources and to stimulate interaction with policymakers in Washington, D.C. In that spirit, the Foundation is in discussions with the Library of Congress leadership to explore ways to support original research drawing on the new Kemp archives and Jack Kemp’s lifetime of work.

The Jack Kemp Oral History Program. In partnership with an American university that is nationally acclaimed for its work on the history of U.S. presidents, the Foundation is launching an oral history program to preserve for the permanent historical record first-hand knowledge about Jack Kemp’s life and public career. There is much knowledge and wisdom available in the collective memories of individuals that simply cannot be found elsewhere. The Jack Kemp Oral History Program will provide an occasion for those close to him to reflect on their time in public life, to distill lessons learned and to preserve wisdom gained from their experience.

Kemp Leadership Academy

From Sportsmanship to Statesmanship The mission of the Kemp Leadership Academy is to sharpen the political philosophy, public policy insights and political leadership skills of current and former … Read More »

Kemp Forum

The Kemp Forum was established in 2011 to provide a platform for the competition of ideas, and to foster respectful and creative public policy discourse and debate. Jack Kemp believed that … Read More »