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Current News

Lots of Lincoln Activities at the 2023 Illinois State Fair
Saturday, June 24, 2023

Looking for Lincoln is proud to bring our 16th president to the Illinois State Fair again in 2023, along with other Lincoln-era activities on the lawn of the Illinois Building near the main gate.

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Looking for Lincoln on NPR
Saturday, February 18, 2023

NPR Illinois and Looking for Lincoln are joining forces all week long, Feb 20-24, 2023 to tell a handful of the lesser-known stories of early Illinois.

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Bronzeville-Black Metropolis is Illinois' newst National Heritage Area
Tuesday, January 24, 2023

Congratulations to Bronzeville-Black Metropolis for becoming Illinois’ newest National Heritage Area. Welcome to the NPS family!

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Upcoming Events

The First Migrants: Black Homesteaders Stake Their Claim
Wednesday, October 11, 2023 7:00 PM - Thursday, October 12, 2023 8:00 PM

Earlier this year, Dr. Jacob Friefeld joined us to discuss the Homestead Act of 1862 as part of Abraham Lincoln’s legacy. He now returns to discuss the largely unknown story of Black Americans who migrated from the South to the Great Plains after Civil War to claim land through the Homestead Act. Some created Black homesteader communities, while others homesteaded alone. All sought a place where they could rise by their own talents and toil, unencumbered by Black codes, repression, and violence. In the words of one Black homesteader descendant, they found “a place they could experience real freedom,” though in a racist society that freedom could never be complete. Their quest foreshadowed the epic movement of Black people out of the South known as the Great Migration.

Dr. Jacob Friefeld is the Director of the Center for Lincoln Studies at the University of Illinois Springfield. His first book , Homesteading the Plains: Toward a New History, challenges the scholarly consensus about the Homestead Act of 1862. His new book, The First Migrants: How Black Homesteaders’ Quest for Land and Freedom Heralded America’s Great Migration, tells the epic story of Black Americans homesteading in the Great Plains after the Civil War.

This program will livestream on Looking for Lincoln's Facebook page and YouTube Channel. The event is FREE. Please do not click on any links that take you to pay page. Our free Facebook events will never ask you for a credit card. If you have trouble finding the event, check the main news feed on the page, and do not click on links in the comments.

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Lincoln's Descendants Living Under His Shadow
Wednesday, November 8, 2023 7:00 PM - 8:00 PM

When we talk about the Lincoln story, we often stop at Abraham Lincoln’s 1865 assassination, but three more generations followed Abraham and Mary. Join Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum Lincoln Historian Christian McWhirter for a glimpse into the lives of President Lincoln’s descendants and how they dealt with living under his enormous shadow.

Dr. Christian McWhirter is the Lincoln Historian at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Museum and author of Battle Hymns: The Power and Popularity of Music in the Civil War. He previously served as Editor of the Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association and as an Assistant Editor for The Papers of Abraham Lincoln project. His writings on Lincoln, popular music, and the Civil War have appeared in numerous publications, including the New York Times, Chicago Sun-Times, and Washington Post. His most recent publication is a Civil War Monitor article on what Lincoln’s taste in music tells us about his worldview.

This program will livestream on Looking for Lincoln's Facebook page and YouTube Channel. The event is FREE. Please do not click on any links that take you to pay page. Our free Facebook events will never ask you for a credit card. If you have trouble finding the event, check the main news feed on the page, and do not click on links in the comments. 

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Full Schedule of Events

Regional Highlight

On May 29, 1856 Abraham Lincoln gave the "lost speech" at the Illinois State Republican Convention in Bloomington, Illinois to a group of over 1,000 people. The speech lasted 90 minutes and so transfixed his audience that the reporters in attendance forgot to take notes. The speech addressed the need to prevent the expansion of slavery. The speech helped rejuvenate the fledgling Republican Party in Illinois.

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