 To kick off "McLean County Reads," world-renowned scholar Dr. Edna
Greene Medford will discuss Abraham Lincoln and the Emancipation
Proclamation tonight (Thursday) at 7 at Wayman AME Church, 803 W.
Olive in Bloomington. The event is free and open to the public and
is co-sponsored by the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission of
McLean County and the David Davis Mansion Foundation.A specialist
on 19th-century African-American history, Medford co-authored the
book "The Emancipation Proclamation: Three Views" and wrote "Lincoln
and the Constitutional Dilemma of Emancipation" for the Organization
of American Historians Magazine of History. She was interviewed on
C-SPAN's "Courts" program in March concerning the Dred Scott case.
Medford is on the faculty at Howard University in Washington, D.C.
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 The McLean County Reads initiative encourages area residents to
read and discuss books about Lincoln and slavery in order to better
understand the nation's preoccupation with slavery and racism that
led ultimately to Lincoln's election, the Civil War and his role as
president. "The Radical and the Republican: Frederick Douglass,
Abraham Lincoln and the Triumph of Antislavery Politics," by James
Oakes, provides insight into this problem by exploring the
relationships, personal and ideological, between Lincoln and the
nation's most outstanding black leader in the 19th century,
Frederick Douglass. The Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission of
McLean County is encouraging libraries and book clubs in the county
to read and discuss this book during 2007-2008.
The David Davis Mansion State Historic Site in Bloomington is
collaborating with the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission of
McLean County to sponsor a series of programs and exhibits
highlighting the Lincoln legacy in McLean County. For more
information, visit
www.mclincoln.org or
www.daviddavismansion.org.
[Text
from Illinois Historic
Preservation Agency file received from the
Illinois Office of Communication and Information]
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