Lincoln Leadership Prize more valued than Nobel Peace Prize

Lincoln Leadership Prize means more to Archbishop Tutu than his Nobel

The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum represented by Oprah Winfrey awarded the Lincoln leadership prize to Archbishop Desmond Tutu on Tuesday, May 13 in Chicago.  This award presented first to Justice Sandra Day O’Connor recognizes those rare individuals who “respond to the responsibilities imposed by history and demanded by conscience.”  A brave fighter of apartheid, then the convener of South Africa’s peace and reconciliation commission, he is emblematic of the Mandela generation that could believe in and build a brighter future for all races in the nation.  

Soft-spoken yet powerful and energized with (should we say self-deprecating but biting) humor, the former Archbishop of Cape Town told Museum supporters this occasion meant more to him than his Nobel Prize.   He delivered a major address to the overflow crowd. Praising the nation and Americans individually as among the most generous anywhere, he noted that the nation is “haunted by a racial divide” that still “offers blacks only the illusion of equality.” African Americans feel that race is a very real issue; while whites try to pretend it isn’t.  Race will haunt Americans, he said, until there is a way to talk honestly about race such as holding a reconciliation forum. 

When he urged Lincoln Museum supporters to take up the challenge of forming a Peace and Reconciliation Commission, it sounded like the ALBC planned Town Halls on Lincoln’s  “unfinished work”: A Discussion of Equality of Opportunity, Democracy, and Race.   Under the leadership of Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr., the ALBC encourages city governments, leading cultural and educational institutions to collaborate with the national commission in planning regional Town Halls from Newark to L.A. with Nashville in between. 

To date there may be as many as 15 Town Halls in planning and discussion. Detroit, led by the head of the state department of History, Arts, and Libraries, William M. Anderson, and Governor Jennifer Granholm and the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn have planned an extensive experience with original educational materials, locally focused research products, and the participation of public television.  Other municipalities and states are not far behind. 

We on the staff of the ALBC encourage you to hold a Town Hall.  We have recruited select historians, political and civic leaders, theologians, journalists and artists to participate with leaders you select to participate in these Town Halls.  Formats may vary but all will include opportunities for widespread discussion.  A national report will be produced.  These Town Halls may be what Archbishop Tutu suggested are required to weaken racism’s hold on our nation. We can take up the challenge of Lincoln’s unfinished work and live his legacy!

Posted by David Early at 05/16/2008 02:32:54 PM |