By Dennis O’Neil

As the home state of the 16th President of the United States, Kentucky will play a central role in the nationwide celebration of the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial.

Gov. Ernie Fletcher recently awarded the University of Louisville a $1,600 grant to help in its celebration of the bicentennial to begin next year.

Fletcher’s grant was one of 30 Kentucky Lincoln Bicentennial grants given out to various communities, historical and arts organizations throughout the Commonwealth.

“These grants will help out communities, organizations, and museums tell the world about the critical role Kentucky and Kentuckians played in the life and career of Abraham Lincoln,” Fletcher said.

As part of the celebration, the U of L Ekstrom Library will host the Forever Free exhibit, which will be on display in the library’s lobby from Feb. 28 to April 4, 2008.

In addition to the Lincoln Bicentennial Commission, funding for the exhibit was provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

The exhibit will primarily depict how Lincoln’s beliefs about freeing the slaves were transformed by wartime developments, according to Ekstrom Library Assistant Supervisor Jami Allen. The exhibit is approximately 80 feet in length and seven feet in height.

U of L also received a $2,500 grant from the Kentucky Lincoln Bicentennial Commission, which is charged with planning the celebration within the Commonwealth. The grant will go towards funding a speaker to appear in conjunction with the exhibit.

The speaker reportedly will be Richard Norton Smith, a famous presidential historian and former director of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum. “These two organizations, in conjunction with the University Libraries, the McConnell Center, and the History Department are supporting the appearance of Richard Norton Smith as a speaker,” Allen said.

Allen added that several other presentations and activities will also be occurring. The African American Theater Program, led by Dr. Lundeana Thomas, will direct a program that will include students singing freedom songs and reading emancipation poetry in memory of Lincoln.

There will also be several lectures given by the U of L faculty. Allen herself is slated to lead a screening of several Lincoln related films, and U of L history professor Thomas Mackey is also scheduled to give a lecture. Mackey declined comment for this story, but his lecture is supposed to pertain to Lincoln in relation to the U.S. constitution.

“These programs will help us rekindle the timely and timeless message of Lincoln: ‘With malice toward none, with charity toward all,'” said State Sen. Dan Kelly, co-chair of Kentucky’s Lincoln Bicentennial Commission.

The national celebration of the Bicentennial will begin on Feb. 12, 2008 near Lincoln’s birth place in Hodgenville, KY., and will include several observances throughout the nation thereafter.

Several other states, including Illinois, Indiana, and New York, have already set up commissions and begun planning the celebration, said Warren Greer, program coordinator for the Lincoln Bicentennial Commission in Kentucky.

Also according to Greer, the Kentucky Lincoln commission has provided over three million dollars to fund grant programs to aid state celebrations. Grants are being distributed through such organizations as the Kentucky Historical Society and the Kentucky Humanities Council.

Greer contended that many believe Lincoln to be one of the greatest of American Presidents in history and that celebrating his birth is important because so many of his ideals have helped to shape society.

“Kentucky has an opportunity to tell its Lincoln story to the world,” said Greer. “Though he left the Bluegrass as a young boy, many of his relationships with Kentuckians helped forge his personal and political life.”

For more information regarding the Lincoln Bicentennial, visit http://www.kylincoln.gov.