Sunday, January 18, 2015
1 - 4 pm
Ages 6 and up

Families come and explore Abolitionist and Civil Rights treasures from the Gilder Lehrman Collection - behind the scenes! Join educators for a brief introduction and then get close up with significant objects from Civil Rights history, including Abolitionist tokens, copies of the Thirteenth Amendment and Emancipation Proclamation signed by Abraham Lincoln, and 1968 placards from Martin Luther King, Jr.’s assassination.

Come hear Lynda Blackmon Lowery, the youngest participant in the historic 1965 march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, share her experiences as recounted in the memoir Turning 15 on the Road to Freedom. The young adult book – co-written by Elspeth Leacock and Susan Buckley – gives readers a first-hand account of what it was like to protest nonviolently to gain the right to vote for African-Americans and proves that kids can be heroes, too. Presentation will include photos, newsreels, excerpts read from the book, and a Q&A.

In honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and the special exhibition Freedom Journey 1965: Photographs of the Selma to Montgomery March by Stephen Somerstein, families take a deeper look at the courageous people who marched for equal voting rights through a scavenger hunt matching faces to the names of heroes from the Civil Rights Movement. Ages 8 and up. Free with Museum Admission.

In honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and the special exhibition Freedom Journey 1965: Photographs of the Selma to Montgomery March by Stephen Somerstein, families take a deeper look at the courageous people who marched for equal voting rights through a scavenger hunt matching faces to the names of heroes from the Civil Rights Movement. Ages 8 and up. Free with Museum Admission.

In honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and the special exhibition Freedom Journey 1965: Photographs of the Selma to Montgomery March by Stephen Somerstein, families take a deeper look at the courageous people who marched for equal voting rights through a scavenger hunt matching faces to the names of heroes from the Civil Rights Movement. Ages 8 and up. Free with Museum Admission.

EVENT DETAILS

The Civil Rights Movement was a time of turbulence and transition, and those resistant to racial equality at times resorted to acts of violence—and even murder. In 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law a monumental piece of federal legislation to reinforce the voting rights guaranteed in the 14th and 15th amendments and combat the disenfranchisement of racial minorities. Commemorating its 50th anniversary, Harvard law professor Randall Kennedy examines the origins, designs, and consequences of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

EVENT DETAILS

Fifty years ago, President Lyndon Johnson signed into law the Civil Rights Act of 1964, outlawing discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or nationality. Two constitutional scholars examine this monumental legislation and how it resonates a half-century later.