Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum News


	For Immediate Release: September 25, 2008	Contact: David Blanchette (217) 558-0516
	Ida B. Wells and the Campaign Against Lynching Book discussion and signing by author Paula Giddings on October 23 is part of 1908 Race Riot commemoration Springfield, IL — Perhaps no symbol of race relations is more reviled than lynching, and this subject will be the focus of a book discussion and signing on Thursday, October 23 at 7 p.m. in the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum's Union Theater. The event is part of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum's commemoration of the 1908 Springfield Race Riot, in partnership with Springfield College-Benedictine University. Paula Giddings, author of Ida: A Sword Among Lions: Ida B. Wells and the Campaign Against Lynching will discuss her biography of the famed African American journalist who led an international crusade against lynching in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Wells was born of slave parents in Mississippi and began her activist career by refusing to leave a first-class ladies' car on a Memphis railway. She rose to be a leading figure in the black and women's rights movements with her independent perspective and dynamic personality, and is still considered among the top civil rights leaders of the last century and a half. Giddings is also the author of In Search of Sisterhood: Delta Sigma Theta and the Challenge of the Black Sorority Movement, about the largest black women's organization in the United States; When and Where I Enter: The Impact of Black Women On Race and Sex in America; and edited the collection of essays, Burning all Illusions: Writings from "The Nation" on Race. The October 23 book discussion and signing is free and open to the public, but reservations must be made by calling (217) 558-8934. It is a continuation of the book discussion that began at the Presidential Library's August 16 Race Riot Symposium. Exhibits commemorating the 1908 Race Riot, "Something so Horrible" and "In 1908..." continue through October in the Presidential Library atrium. And famed civil rights attorney Morris Dees, founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center, will speak to the Illinois NAACP State Conference Friday, October 10 at 7 p.m. at the President Abraham Lincoln Hotel and Conference Center in Springfield as part of the 100th anniversary Race Riot commemoration. ###