Mourning Lincoln & Racial Equality

Lincoln & the Legacy of Conflict Series
Program 4
Mourning Lincoln & Racial Equality
John Stauffer, Harvard University

Professor Stauffer will explore Frederick Douglass's and other black and white abolitionists' responses to Lincoln's assassination and the degree to which the assassination prompted Northerners to consider and accept full black citizenship.  He will also address the theme of forgiveness and its political dilemmas as it relates to assassination, while keeping Douglass at the center of the story.

John Stauffer writes and lectures on antislavery, social protest movements, interracial friendship, and photography. He is a Harvard University professor of English, African American Studies, and American Studies. He is also a long term Fellow of the Massachusetts Historical Society. His 13 books include The Black Hearts of Men: Radical Abolitionists and the Transformation of Race (2002) and Giants: The Parallel Lives of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln (2008), which both won numerous awards. He is the author of more than 90 articles, on topics ranging from the Civil War era to visual culture.  His newest book is Sally Mann:  Southern Landscape (2014); Picturing Frederick Douglass:  An Illustrated Biography of the 19th Century's Most Photographed American will be published by Norton in 2015; and at the MHS he is completing a cultural biography of Charles Sumner. His essays have appeared in Time, the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, The New Republic, and Huffington Post. He has appeared on national radio and television shows and has lectured widely throughout the United States and Europe.

Lincoln and the Legacy of Conflict Series

The MHS will commemorate the sesquicentennial of the end of the Civil War and the assassination of Pres. Abraham Lincoln with a series of programs. Renowned authors and historians will explore the war, the president, and the legacy this conflict has left. A Civil Conversation: James McPherson and Louis Masur on 26 March is the first program in the series. Founders' Son: A Life of Abraham Lincoln with Richard Brookhiser on 1 April is program two. Mourning Lincoln with Martha Hodes on 8 April is program three. Mourning Lincoln & Racial Equality with John Stauffer on 15 April is the final program in the series.