The Jepson Leadership Forum 2008-2009 Abraham Lincoln’s Legacy of Leadership

In 1861, a little-known, one-term congressman from Illinois became the 16th president. Since his assassination four years later, he has been recognized as one of the country’s greatest leaders. The 2008–09 Jepson Leadership Forum observes the 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birth and examines his moral leadership and political genius. We have much to learn from our efforts to understand Lincoln’s strengths and weaknesses, successes and failures, and how he both preserved and transformed the nation. Forum events this year all focus on important aspects of Lincoln’s leadership and legacy.

Photo gallery of 2008-09 Forum

Video highlights of the 2008-09 Forum

University Orchestra's performance of the Lincoln Portrait Feb. 12, 2009

Friday, Sept. 12, 2008
7 p.m., Jepson Alumni Center
Wonderful self-reliance: Abraham Lincoln's Leadership Video of presentation
Oxford University historian Richard Carwardine relates Lincoln’s compelling personal and public story in Lincoln: A Life of Purpose and Power. The book traces Lincoln’s rise to power and his years in the White House, paying close attention to the evolution of his political agenda, moral principles, religious beliefs, and changing views on slavery.

Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2008
7 p.m., Modlin Center for the Arts
What Lincoln Was Up Against: The Context of Leadership Video of presentation
University of Richmond President Edward L. Ayers will speak about Lincoln’s conflicts, mistakes, miscalculations, and competing values. Abraham Lincoln’s leadership can only be understood by grasping the challenges he faced. Those challenges included not only the Confederacy and its army but also a starkly divided Northern electorate and public opinion. Lincoln had to win a war at home as well as one against a more obvious enemy.

Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2008
7 p.m., Jepson Alumni Center
Abraham Lincoln and Shaping of Public Opinion Video of presentation
When Abraham Lincoln became president, the public doubted he had the necessary background and experience to be a successful leader. Because he had almost no formal schooling, people assumed he must be lacking a facility for writing. But Douglas L. Wilson shows that Lincoln’s unsuspected literary ability worked to his advantage as a hidden asset, enabling him to communicate effectively with his constituents and to persuade them to accept difficult measures and decisions.

Friday, Jan. 30, 2009
7:30 p.m., Modlin Center for the Arts
Music in Times of Civil Unrest
Program for the evening

Inspired by the legacy of Abraham Lincoln, the Richmond Symphony presents an evening of music that has figured prominently in times of war and civil unrest. Compositions of consolation, propaganda, historical interest, anger, and peace have been assembled for this moving concert as an homage to the Great Emancipator.

Thursday, Feb. 12, 2009
7:30 p.m., Camp Concert Hall, Booker Hall of Music
The Magnanimity of President Lincoln Video of presentation

From the first minute of his presidency, Lincoln confronted the radical moral contradiction left by the nation’s Founders: universal ideals of equality and liberty and the monstrous injustice of human slavery. Drawn to the Lincoln presidency as a case study in political ethics, William Lee Miller first explored Abraham Lincoln’s intellectual and moral development in “Lincoln’s Virtues: An Ethical Biography." Miller will talk about Lincoln’s resolve, judgment, humility and (particularly) his magnanimity and share his understanding of the qualities that Lincoln developed as he led the nation in its gravest crisis.

Thursday, Feb. 26, 2009
4 p.m., Jepson Alumni Center
Conversation on Race, Reconciliation and Richmond Video of presentation
After Emancipation and the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments, through Reconstruction and the Jim Crow and the modern Civil Rights eras, from slavery and institutionalized injustice to today, we live in a place forever defined in part by its complex past. The community is invited to a conversation about race and social justice in the context of the Forum’s look at the legacy of Lincoln. Discussion leaders for this event will be Christy S. Coleman and Linda Powell-Pruitt.

Thursday, March 12, 2009, 7 p.m.
Tried by War: Lincoln as Commander in Chief Video of presentation

Abraham Lincoln confronted greater challenges as commander in chief than any other president of the United States. With no military training or experience, he faced a steep learning curve in a war that threatened to sever the United States into two nations. One of the nation’s most able historians, James M. McPherson explores these themes of power and leadership in a new book on the leadership of the wartime president.

March 12-14 2009
Lincoln and the South conference
A two-day event hosted on campus by the University of Richmond and produced by the American Civil War Center at Historic Tredegar.