Abraham Lincoln Association Celebrates 100 Years With an Expanded Two-Day Lincoln's Birthday Event

[January 12, 2008]  SPRINGFIELD -- The Abraham Lincoln Association is celebrating the 100th anniversary of its founding with an unprecedented two-day Lincoln's Birthday commemoration event in Springfield on Feb. 11-12.

In announcing the two-day event, ALA President Dick Hart said, "We felt that a centennial celebration deserved a special program. We decided to expand to two days and include a new event. The ALA is partnering with the Springfield and Bloomington branches of the NAACP to present an evening symphony concert in each city, featuring American music and the words of Lincoln, Frederick Douglass and others. We are also pleased to announce that our banquet speaker this year is nationally known presidential historian Michael Beschloss."

Feb. 11

The two days of events begin with a luncheon on Feb. 11 featuring Dr. Allen C. Guelzo, author of the newly published "Lincoln and Douglas: The Debate That Defined America." The luncheon will take place at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library in downtown Springfield. For reservations call 217-558-8934 or visit www.alplm.org and select "purchase tickets." The title of Guelzo's presentation is "Who Won the Lincoln-Douglas Debates?"

The first day of the annual Abraham Lincoln Symposium will begin at 1 p.m. Feb. 11 at the Old State Capitol. Presenters include well-known scholars Jean H. Baker, author of "Mary Todd Lincoln: A Biography"; Mark E. Neely Jr., known for his Pulitzer Prize-winning book "The Fate of Liberty: Abraham Lincoln and Civil Liberties"; and Douglas L. Wilson, author of the recent book "Lincoln's Sword: The Presidency and the Power of Words."

Feb. 11 events will conclude in the evening at the University of Illinois at Springfield's Sangamon Auditorium, where the Illinois Symphony Orchestra will perform a concert of American music, "An American Dream." The year 2008 also marks the 100th anniversary of the Springfield Race Riot which eventually led to the formation of the NAACP. "Since the ALA and the NAACP were both founded in 1908, the co-sponsorship of the concert by both organizations is a fitting partnership," Hart said. The concert will feature chorus music as well as several readers who will interpret pieces written by Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, Ida B. Wells and W.E.B. Dubois. The concert will be repeated in Bloomington on Feb. 13. For ticket information, call Sangamon Auditorium at 217-206-6160 or the Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts at 309-434-2777.

Feb. 12

The second day of the Abraham Lincoln Symposium will feature well-known historians Brian R. Dirck, whose special areas of interest include Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War era; Brooks D. Simpson, the author of several books on the Civil War and Reconstruction; and Michael Vorenberg, whose first book, "Final Freedom: The Civil War, the Abolition of Slavery, and the Thirteenth Amendment," has been widely acclaimed.

Activities will end the evening of Feb. 12 with the Abraham Lincoln Association's centennial banquet, which will be at Springfield's Crowne Plaza Hotel. The featured speaker is Michael Beschloss, who has written several books on American presidents and recently authored the best-seller "Presidential Courage: Brave Leaders and How They Changed America, 1789-1989." Beschloss appears frequently on PBS, ABC and C-SPAN and is the NBC News presidential historian. Dinner tickets, which are $75 per person, can be obtained by calling Cathy LeComte at Illinois National Bank at 217-747-5502.

For more information on the Abraham Lincoln Association and upcoming events, visit www.abrahamlincolnassociation.org.

[Text from Abraham Lincoln Association news release via the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency and the Illinois Office of Communication and Information]