February 12, 2009

Abraham Lincoln’s Birthday Celebration

Join us for this historic Abraham Lincoln bicentennial birthday tribute at the Lincoln Memorial. Every year since the Lincoln Memorial was dedicated, dignitaries, diplomats, and citizens have assembled in the chamber to honor Abraham Lincoln on the day of his birth.

The National Park Service, the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission, and the Military District of Washington, along with the Lincoln Birthday National Commemorative Committee, encourage all to gather for this very special birthday celebration.  

An invited guest speaker will read the Gettysburg Address. Other distinguished guests and officials will remark on America’s inheritance-Lincoln’s legacy.  

April 12, 2009

Marian Anderson Tribute Concert

Join opera’s own Denyce Graves, the Chicago Children’s Choir, Sweet Honey in the Rock, and the Washington National Opera as we celebrate Abraham Lincoln and the civil rights legacy of opera star Marian Anderson. Described as having a “voice heard once in a hundred years,” Miss Anderson was denied the right to perform in Constitution Hall due to the color of her skin. Through the efforts of Miss Anderson, Howard University, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, and Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes, a new location for the concert was chosen: the Lincoln Memorial. 

From the moment that Marian Anderson sang to the nation from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on Easter Sunday 1939, she anointed the memorial as a shrine to the ideals of freedom and activated the modern civil rights movement. Those in attendance described her voice “as if it were a prayer” and the performance as a “beautiful awakening.”

Miss Anderson herself recalled, “It was more than a concert for me...it seemed that everyone present was a living witness to the ideals of freedom for which President Lincoln died.” Seventy years later, it is fitting that we pay tribute to Marian Anderson’s courage and Abraham Lincoln’s legacy of equality of opportunity, freedom, and democracy. 

A naturalization ceremony will precede the event.

May 30, 2009

Lincoln Memorial Rededication

Four score and seven years ago, Americans of different generations, races, backgrounds, and occupations gathered in Washington, D.C. to dedicate the Lincoln Memorial. The President of the United States, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Robert Lincoln, and veterans of the Blue and Gray alike came to honor the Savior of the Union. In the wake of Civil War, unity was the prevailing sentiment of that day. 

Now, the memorial built to honor Abraham Lincoln continues to bring Americans together in struggles for equality and celebrations of freedom. Join us on May 30, 2009 as we rededicate the Lincoln Memorial and demonstrate that this government—this nation—truly is one of, by, and for the People.