National Town Hall Meetings
On July 22, 2008 over 30 leaders from the fields of government, non-profit, civics, journalism, arts, humanities and education, met with the ALBC to discuss a series of National Town Halls.
Hosted by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C., meeting attendants included U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-IL), chairman of the ALBC’s town hall initiative; current Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood, then ALBC co-chair; former HUD Secretary Jack Kemp; William H. Gray III, former congressman and president of the United Negro College Fund; and Jim O’Shea, former managing editor of the Los Angeles Times. University of Chicago historians Charles Branham and Adam Green moderated the discussion.
The result: Ten cities (and later an 11th) chosen to lead discussions on Race, Freedom and Equality of Opportunity and focus on connecting Lincoln to the present day. To date, Gettysburg; Washington, DC; Detroit; Chicago; and the USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72) in Everett, WA have featured Town Halls. Discussion topics have included political representation, liberty and justice, immigration, voting rights, interracial roots, leadership and the military, and reconstruction.
The ALBC national Town Halls are a joint collaboration with the Fetzer Institute of Kalamazoo, Michigan and a multiplicity of co-conveners.
Visit the ALBC for more details and information on the National Town Hall Series.
Read more about this topic: Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission
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