May 30, 2009
On May 30, 1922 President Warren G. Harding commemorated the life of President Lincoln with the dedication of the Lincoln Memorial. Exactly four score and seven years later the ALBC, National Park Service, Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States and the Military District of Washington, presented a Rededication Retrospective.
The program, at the Lincoln Memorial, featured special guest speakers that delivered remarks about how Abraham Lincoln and the Lincoln Memorial remained entwined as beacons of freedom. The program also featured performances by the United States Marine Band and by William Farley, winner of Poetry Out Loud, who read Poet and well-known Abraham Lincoln biographer Carl Sandburg's The People, Yes.
Speakers and performers included:
- Gordon R. Bury, 100th Commander-in-Chief of the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War
- William Farley, 2009 Poetry Out Loud National Champion
- Reverend Dr. Roger J. Gench, Senior pastor at New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C.
- Harold Holzer, ALBC Commissioner
- Peggy O'Dell, Regional Director for the National Capitol
- Dr. Benjamin Franklin Payton, President of Tuskegee University
- Ernest "Ernie" Quintana, Acting Deputy Director of the National Park Service
- Secretary Ken Salazar, Department of the Interior
- United States Marine Band
Read more about this topic: Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission, Lincoln Memorial Rededication Series