On Saturday, April 11, 2026, the National Park Service will commemorate the 150th anniversary of the dedication of the Emancipation Memorial statue in Lincoln Park, Washington, DC. Also sometimes called the Freedmen’s Memorial, the statue was created because former enslaved African Americans wanted to honor the man that they saw as freeing them from slavery. Frederick Douglass was the keynote speaker at the dedication (which was April 14, 1876, also the year of the centennial of the Declaration of Independence). President Ulysses S. Grant, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, and many senators and representatives were present. Impersonators of these men, plus of Charlotte Scott, the freedwoman who donated the first $5 to the statue fund, will be on hand. And so will I – I will be on the history panel portion discussing the importance and legacy of Lincoln and the statue.
Next week I’ll be in Dedham, Massachusetts to give a talk about my book, Lincoln in New England: In Search of His Forgotten Tours, to the Olde Colony Civil War Round Table.
The following week I’ll be talking about Lincoln in New England in my hometown of Ipswich, Massachusetts. If you’re in the area, you can register for the free event at the Ipswich Public Library here.
Then it’s up to Vermont to speak at the 2nd Annual Lincoln Forum Spring Conference held at Hildene, the Lincoln Family Home in Manchester, VT. That talk will be very special, as I’ll relate Lincoln’s two New England trips to the larger topic of “From Human Rights to Civil Rights.” More information at the Lincoln Forum site here.
Plenty more coming along after that, so check out my media page for more.
Now Available: Lincoln in New England: In Search of His Forgotten Tours. Or Order directly at:
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David J. Kent is Immediate Past President of the Lincoln Group of DC and the author of many books on Abraham Lincoln, Nikola Tesla, and Thomas Edison.
