Week Three — July 7–13

Emancipation: Where Do We Go from Here?

President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, as the nation approached its third year of bloody civil war. One hundred and fifty years later, and fifty years after the March on Washington, how do we achieve true freedom for those whose lives remain in bondage to poverty, poor education, lack of jobs, and disparate access to health care? What are the ethical and spiritual directrections for striving to ensure that all may be emancipated from these continuing inequalities?

Confirmed Lecturers

Monday 7/8	Tuesday 7/9	Wednesday 7/10	Thursday 7/11	Friday 7/12
Harold Holzer	Donna Brazile	Robert M. Franklin, Jr.	Reverend Raphael G. Warnock	Helene D. Gayle

Monday, July 8

Lecture presented by the New York State Archives Partnership Trust, the Department of Religion and the Chautauqua Institution Archives

Harold Holzer

historian; author, Emancipating Lincoln

Harold Holzer is one of the country's leading authorities on Abraham Lincoln and the political culture of the Civil War era. A prolific writer and lecturer, and frequent guest on television, Holzer serves as chairrman of The Lincoln Bicentennial Foundation, successor organization to the U. S. Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission (ALBC), to which he was appointed by President Clinton in 2000, and co-chaired from 2001–2010. President Bush, in turn, awarded Holzer the National Humanities Medal in 2008. He is serving currently as a Hertog Fellow at The New-York Historical Society.

Harold Holzer has authored, co-authored, and edited 42 books. His latest is Emancipating Lincoln: The Emancipation Proclamation In Text, Context, and Memory (Harvard University Press), which Henry Louis Gates Jr. called an “essential guide to Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation.” His other recent books are: The New York Times Complete Civil War co-edited with Craig L. Symonds; Lincoln on War, a collection of the 16th President’s letters and speeches; an edited volume called Hearts Touched By Fire: The Best of Battles and Leaders of the Civil War; and an award-winning young readers’ volume on the Lincoln family entitled Father Abraham: Lincoln and His Sons. In addition, Holzer has written over 500 articles and reviews for both popular magazines and scholarly journals.

His forthcoming books are Lincoln (a young adult companion book to the Steven Spielberg movie) and The History of the Civil War in Fifty Objects from the New-York Historical Society. He has also edited a volume entitled 1863, and a limited edition collection of Lincoln's speeches and letters. His next major scholarly work will be a book on the press during the age of Lincoln.

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Tuesday, July 9

Donna Brazile

Donna Brazile is an adjunct professor, author, syndicated columnist, television political commentator, Vice Chair of Voter Registration and Participation at the Democratic National Committee, and former interim National Chair of the Democratic National Committee, as well as the former chair of the DNC’s Voting Rights Institute. Ms. Brazile worked on every presidential campaign from 1976 through 2000, when she became the first African-American to manage a presidential campaign. Author of the best-selling memoir Cooking with Grease: Stirring the Pots in American Politics, Ms. Brazile is an adjunct professor at Georgetown University, a syndicated newspaper columnist for Universal Uclick, a columnist for Ms. Magazine, and O, the Oprah magazine, an on-air contributor to CNN, and ABC, where she regularly appears on ABC’s This Week. Her passion is acting; she has made two cameo appearances on CBS’s The Good Wife. Most recently, Donna has appeared on Netflix’s new series House of Cards. Ask her and she’ll tell you that acting, after all, is the key to success in politics.

In August 2009, O, The Oprah Magazine chose Ms. Brazile as one of its 20 “remarkable visionaries” for the magazine’s first-ever O Power List. In addition, she was named among the 100 Most Powerful Women by Washingtonian magazine, Top 50 Women e, Top 50 Women in America by Essence magazine, and received the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s highest award for political achievement.

She is currently on the board of the National Democratic Institute (NDI), the National Institute for Civil Discourse, Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, and the BlackAmericaWeb.com Relief Fund, Inc. Since 2000, Ms. Brazile has lectured at over 125 colleges and universities across the country on such topics as “Inspiring Civility in American Politics,” “Race Relations in the Age of Obama,” “Why Diversity Matters,” and “Women in American Politics: Are We There Yet?”

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Wednesday, July 10

Robert M. Franklin, Jr.

President emeritus of Morehouse College, where he served as the tenth president from 2007 through 2012, Rev. Dr. Robert Michael Franklin, Jr. is a Visiting Scholar in Residence at Stanford University’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute. He had served as a Presidential Distinguished Professor of Social Ethics at Emory University from 2004 to 2007, and was a senior fellow at the Center for the Study of Law and Religion at the law school. He had also served as Theologian in Residence of Chautauqua for the summer season of 2005. He continues to provide commentary for the National Public Radio (NPR) program, “All Things Considered,” and weekly commentary for Atlanta Interfaith Broadcasting Television.

Dr. Franklin graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Morehouse with a degree in political science and religion; continued his education at Harvard Divinity School, earning a master of divinity degree in Christian social ethics and pastoral care; and then earned a doctorate in ethics and society, and religion and the social sciences at the University of Chicago. He also undertook international study at the University of Durham, UK, as an English-Speaking Union Scholar. His major fields of study have included social ethics, psychology, and African American religion. He is also the recipient of honorary degrees from Bethune Cookman University, Bates College, and Swarthmore College. An insightful educator, Franklin has served on the faculties of the University of Chicago, Harvard Divinity School, Colgate-Rochester Divinity School and at Emory University's Candler School of Theology, where he gained a national reputation as director of Black Church Studies.

Rev. Franklin is the author of three books: Crisis in the Village: Restoring Hope in African American Communities; Another Day’s Journey: Black Churches Confronting the American Crisis; and Liberating Visions: Human Fulfillment and Social Justice in African American Thought. He has co-authored (Don S. Browning, et. al.) a volume titled From Culture Wars to Common Ground: Religion and the American Family Debate. In 2012, he wrote the foreword to a reprint of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s, “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” (Trinity Forum, New York).

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Thursday, July 11

Reverend Raphael G. Warnock

senior pastor of the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church

The Reverend Raphael G. Warnock, Ph.D. is the senior pastor of the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church. His outreach and activism have addressed such issues as voting rights, poverty, HIV/AIDS and disparities in the criminal justice system. A sought after preacher and scholar, Dr. Warnock is a member of the American Academy of Religion, Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. and various other civic and social organizations. He graduated cum laude from Morehouse College in 1991 with a degree in psychology. He also holds Master of Divinity, Master of Philosophy and Doctor of Philosophy degrees from Union Theological Seminary.

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Friday, July 12

Helene D. Gayle

president and CEO of CARE USA

Helene D. Gayle is president and CEO of CARE USA, a leading international humanitarian organization with approximately 10,000 staff, whose poverty-fighting programs reached 122 million people last year in 84 countries. Since joining CARE in 2006, Dr. Gayle has led efforts to reinforce CARE’s commitment to empowering girls and women to bring lasting change to poor communities. Under her leadership, CARE has strengthened its focus on long term impact, increased policy and advocacy efforts and deepened connections between poverty and the environment. Gayle has leveraged the power of CARE’s corporate and NGO partners to significantly expand CARE’s reach across the globe. An expert on health, global development, and humanitarian issues, she spent 20 years with the Centers for Disease Control, working primarily on HIV/AIDS. Dr. Gayle then worked at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, directing programs on HIV/AIDS and other global health issues.

Dr. Gayle serves on several boards, including the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the Rockefeller Foundation, Colgate-Palmolive Company, Harvard Business School Social Enterprise Initiative, and ONE. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the American Public Health Association, the Institute of Medicine and the American Academy of Pediatrics. Dr. Gayle currently serves on the President's Commission on White House Fellowships and the U.S. Department of State’s Foreign Affairs Policy Board.

Named one of Forbes’ “100 Most Powerful Women,” Foreign Policy magazine's "Top 100 Global Thinkers," and Newsweek's top 10 "Women in Leadership," Dr. Gayle has been featured by national and international media outlets. She has also published numerous scientific articles.

Dr. Gayle was born and raised in Buffalo, NY. She earned a B.A. in psychology at Barnard College, an M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania, and an M.P.H. from Johns Hopkins University.

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