| Lincoln Bicentennial town hall centers on “unfinished work” of race |
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Abraham Lincoln was born on Feb. 12, 1809, in a log cabin in Kentucky. Two hundred years later, in honor of the 16th president of the United States, The Civic League is joining with more than 20 Atlanta-area organizations to host a regional town hall meeting to discuss race, civility and equality of opportunity. The theme for the Atlanta town hall is “Unfinished Work: Race, Civility and Equality of Opportunity,” and it will be held on Wednesday, Dec. 9 at the Cecil B. Day Chapel at The Carter Center. The program begins with a reception at 5 p.m. and is free and open to the public. Space is limited, however, and reservations are strongly recommended. This event is part of a yearlong, nationwide celebration of Abraham Lincoln’s legacy. Keynote speaker for the Atlanta town hall is Dr. Stephen L. Carter, the William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law at Yale University and best-selling author of Civility: Manners, Morals, and the Etiquette of Democracy and The Culture of Disbelief: How American Law and Politics Trivialize Religious Devotion, and most recently the novel Jericho's Fall.“We are looking forward to bringing the celebration of Abraham Lincoln’s life and legacy to Atlanta, a city that has been at the center of our ongoing, national dialogue about race, equality of opportunity and civil rights,” said Eileen Mackevich, executive director of the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission. The Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission Foundation is sponsoring the event in conjunction with the Fetzer Institute, the Georgia Humanities Council, the National Center for Civil and Human Rights and the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library. It is one of 11 town hall meetings being held across the country under the broad theme of “Lincoln’s Legacy: Race, Freedom and Equality of Opportunity.” Inspired by Abraham Lincoln’s efforts to build an equal opportunity society, the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission’s Lincoln Legacy Town Hall Meeting series seeks to build mutual understanding about differing perspectives on race and ethnicity and provide an opportunity to re-examine what it means to be American in the 21st century. Congress established the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission to plan the nation’s celebration of the 16th president’s 200th birthday in 2009. The Commission works to engage the broadest range of individuals and groups in the commemoration. Through education programs, public forums and the arts, the Commission provides an opportunity to re-examine Lincoln’s legacy in our 21st century democracy. Its members, who are appointed by the president and congressional leaders, include political leaders, jurists, historians and collectors. For more information, please visit www.abrahamlincoln200.org.
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