Messiah College American Democracy lectures celebrate the life and legacy of Abraham Lincoln
March 31st, 2009
GRANTHAM, Pa. (March 31, 2009) – Messiah College will celebrate the 200th Anniversary of Abraham Lincoln on April 21 with a panel discussion and lecture hosted by the department of history. Both presentations are in Brubaker Auditorium in the Eisenhower Campus Center on the college’s Grantham campus. The panel discussion, “Abraham Lincoln and the Transformation of American Democracy” begins at 4 p.m. Then, at 8 p.m. Darrel Bigham, member of the National Lincoln Bicentennial Commission, will present the keynote address, “My Life with Lincoln: Memory, History and Irony.” Free tickets are required for the evening lecture and can be reserved by calling the ticket office at (717) 691-6036 or www.messiah.edu/tickets.
The discussion is part of the college’s annual American Democracy Lecture series and has been endorsed by the Lincoln Bicentennial Commission. Following the lead of the commission, the panel seeks to use an educational and public forum to address Lincoln’s two major challenges—surmounting race and assuring equal rights for all people—while discovering how Lincoln’s legacy still reaches Americans today.
The panel features Darrel Bigham, professor of history at the University of Southern Indiana and chairman of the Education Subcommittee of the National Lincoln Bicentennial Commission; James LaGrand and John Fea, both professors of history at Messiah College; Lawrence Burnley, associate dean of multicultural programs, Messiah College; Gabor Boritt, professor of history at Gettysburg College; Mark Neely, professor of American Civil War Era at the Pennsylvania State University; and Matthew Pinsker, professor of history, Dickinson College.
Messiah College, a private Christian college of the liberal and applied arts and sciences, enrolls 2,800 undergraduate students in 55 majors. Established in 1909, the primary campus is located in Grantham, Pa., near the state capital of Harrisburg. A satellite campus affiliated with Temple University is located in Philadelphia.
