NEWS

Noted Emancipation Proclamation scholar to speak at Black History Month event

Feb 6, 2013 | General News, Liberal Arts

The executive order that gave the American Civil War a new moral purpose by outlawing slavery in the Confederate States will be the topic when noted Lincoln scholar Dr. Edna Greene Medford speaks at 6:30 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 21 at the Lincoln Parish Library. February is Black History Month and marks the 150th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, and this event is organized by Louisiana Tech’s department of history at Louisiana Tech University. Medford’s talk, “The Emancipation Proclamation: Yesterday and Today,” will discuss the public response to the Emancipation Proclamation in Lincoln’s time and how and how it is viewed now. As professor and chair of the department of history at Howard University, Medford’s publications include “Emancipation Proclamation: Three Views” (2006), the forthcoming “Lincoln and Emancipation,” as well as numerous essays on Lincoln, slavery and African-American history.  She is also a recipient of the prestigious Order of Lincoln from the Lincoln Academy of Illinois. According to Thomas Johnson, former chair of the Lincoln Bicentennial Committee, Medford “is probably the pre-eminent scholar of the Emancipation Proclamation, particularly when viewed from the African-American perspective.” Medford’s visit to Ruston is made possible by the Organization of American History’s Distinguished Lectureship Program.  Local sponsors include Tech’s department of history, the Lincoln Parish Library and Lambda-Rho Chapter of Phi Alpha Theta History Honor Society. For additional information, contact Dr. David M. Anderson, an associate professor of history and coordinator of Black History Month events, at 318-257-2872 or by email at history@latech.edu. The event is free and open to the public.