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Dignitaries To Support Georgia Historical Society’s Program on Lincoln

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Atlanta—September 9, 2008: Prominent Georgians to support the Georgia Historical Society’s Profiles in Leadership – Abraham Lincoln: Leadership and Legacy for a New Generation. The program will examine the life, leadership, and legacy of President Lincoln and will feature a roundtable discussion with noted American historians David Blight and Harold Holzer.  The event will be held October 10, 2008 at 8:00 p.m. at the studios of Georgia Public Broadcasting in Atlanta.

Serving as honorary chairs of the event are several past and current national and state leaders.  This year’s Honorary Co-Chairs include The Honorable Griffin B. Bell, Sr., Secretary of State Karen Handel, The Honorable Sam Nunn, and Commissioner of Labor Michael Thurmond. Other dignitaries supporting GHS in this program include former Governor Roy Barnes, former Senator David H. Gambrell, and Federal Judge Willis B. Hunt, Jr.  For a list of all distinguished supporters of this event, see the end of this release. The Georgia Historical Society, the oldest cultural organization in the state, has long had productive relationships with leaders at the local, state, and national levels.  The GHS Library and Archives, which holds an original draft of the Constitution, is also the chosen repository for the papers of Georgia leaders from the colonial period to the present, including James Habersham, Supreme Court Justice James Moore Wayne, and Attorney General Griffin Bell.

The Honorable Griffin B. Bell, Sr. was Attorney General of the United States during the Carter Administration, and is known for restoring dignity to the U.S. Department of Justice following Watergate. For more information on Bell’s life and contributions to the legal profession, click here. Bell has been a dedicated member and supporter of the Georgia Historical Society for 59 years, and recently donated a large cache of his professional and personal papers to the Society.

Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel also serves as a chair for the event.  Handel was elected in 2006 as the first Republican Secretary of State of Georgia. She has served as Deputy Chief of Staff to the Bush-Quayle administration and to Governor Sonny Perdue.  For more information on Handel’s achievements in public service, click here. As Secretary of State, Handel serves as an ex-officio on the GHS Board of Curators.

The Honorable Sam Nunn, another Co-Chair of the event, served the state of Georgia for twenty-four years in the United States Senate, from 1972 to 1996, where he chaired the Senate Armed Services Committee.  Nunn is a retired senior partner with the Atlanta law firm of King and Spalding, and a distinguished professor in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs at Georgia Tech. He also serves as the Chief Executive Officer of the Nuclear Threat Initiative, and his name was mentioned as a possible Vice Presidential choice for candidate Barack Obama. For more information on Nunn, click here.

Commissioner of Labor Michael Thurmond joins Bell, Handel, and Nunn as an Honorary Co-Chair of the event.  Thurmond, elected in 1998, was the first non-incumbent African-American elected to statewide office and is well-known for his reform of employment practices in the state.  Commissioner Thurmond is a Distinguished Practitioner/Lecturer at the University of Georgia’s Carl Vinson Institute of Government. Commissioner Thurmond is also a past winner of the Georgia Historical Society's Lilla M.Hawes Award.  For more about Thurmond, click here.

The 2008 Profiles in Leadership program will explore the life, times, and leadership of the man who guided the nation through one of the most tumultuous periods in American history. Our panelists this year are two of the foremost national authorities on Lincoln and are both Lincoln Prize winners. David Blight is the Class of 1954 Professor of American History at Yale University, and Lincoln scholar Harold Holzer is co-chairman of the United States Lincoln Bicentennial.

In addition, Holzer will be previewing his new book, Lincoln - President Elect (slated for release in late October). Copies will be available for purchase and autographs during the book signing that follows the evening's program.

For more information about this event, including a description of the program and biographies of the scholars, please visit www.georgiahistory.com .

Included below is a complete list of supporters of the Georgia Historical Society’s 2008 Profiles in Leadership event.

Honorary Co-Chairs

The Honorable Griffin B. Bell, Sr.
Secretary of State Karen Handel
The Honorable Sam Nunn
Commissioner of Labor Michael Thurmond

Host Committee Chairs

 
Mr. and Mrs. Ray C. Anderson
The Honorable and Mrs. Roy Barnes
Mr. and Mrs. James H. Blanchard
Mr. and Mrs. Robert L. Brown, Jr.
Mr. and Mrs. Archie Davis
Mrs. William M. Gabard
Mr. and Mrs. Bradley Hale
Mr. and Mrs. Bill Jones III
Mr. and Mrs. Donald Kole
Mr. and Mrs. Barry Phillips
Mr. and Mrs. John A. Wallace

Host Committee Members

Mr. and Mrs. Alvan S. Arnall
The Honorable and Mrs. David H. Gambrell
Mr. and Mrs. Neil Hightower
Mr. and Mrs. Henry L. Howell
The Honorable and Mrs. Willis B. Hunt, Jr.
Mr. and Mrs. Edward Inman
Mr. and Mrs. Phil Jacobs
Mr. and Mrs. John F. McMullan
Mr. C.B. Harman Nicholson
Mr. and Mrs. Michael L. Starr
Mr. and Mrs. Frank O. Walsh, III

Additional Support From

John and Mary Franklin Foundation
Special thanks to Georgia Public Broadcasting

This program is made possible in part by the Georgia Humanities Council via the National Endowment for the Humanities' "We The People" initiative.