April 1, 2013 (REVISED April 30, 2013) U.S. Civil and Human Rights Movement is Focus of 2013 Law Day Program

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In recognition of Law Day 2013, the Law Library of Congress will present “The Movement in America for Civil and Human Rights.” This program will be held at 1 p.m. on Wednesday, May 1, in the Mumford Room, located on the sixth floor of the Library’s James Madison Building, 101 Independence Ave. S.E., Washington, D.C. The event is free and open to the public; tickets are not required.

Carrie Johnson, justice correspondent for National Public Radio, will moderate a panel discussion on the movement in America for civil and human rights and the impact it has had in promoting the ideal of equality under the law. This year’s national Law Day theme, “Realizing the Dream: Equality for All” marks the 150th anniversary of the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation and the 50th anniversary of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech.

Distinguished panelists will include Theodore M. Shaw, Office Counsel to Fulbright & Jaworski LLP and professor Columbia University School of Law; Jeffrey Rosen, professor of law at The George Washington University and legal affairs editor of The New Republic; Risa L. Goluboff, professor of law and history at the University of Virginia and scholar in residence at the John W. Kluge Center in the Library of Congress; and Kirk Rascoe, director of Opportunity, Inclusiveness and Compliance at the Library of Congress.

In addition to the panel discussion, the first draft of the Emancipation Proclamation, handwritten by President Abraham Lincoln, will be placed on display at the close of the program for a period of 30 minutes. The draft document was first read by President Lincoln to his cabinet on July 22, 1862. The document was recently on display in “The Civil War in America” exhibition, which runs through Jan. 4, 2014, in the Southwest Exhibition Gallery of the Thomas Jefferson Building, 10 First St. S.E. in Washington, D.C. The exhibition is free and open to the public, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Saturday.

Made possible by the generous support of the Friends of the Law Library of Congress, this program is part of the Law Library’s annual celebration of Law Day—a national event that celebrates the rule of law and its contributions to the freedoms that Americans enjoy. In 1957, the American Bar Association instituted Law Day to draw attention to both the principles and practices of law and justice. President Dwight D. Eisenhower established Law Day with a proclamation in 1958. For more information on Law Day, visit www.lawday.org External.

Founded in 1800, the Library of Congress is the nation’s oldest federal cultural institution. The Library seeks to spark imagination and creativity and to further human understanding and wisdom by providing access to knowledge through its magnificent collections, programs, publications and exhibitions. Many of the Library’s rich resources can be accessed through its website at www.loc.gov.

The Law Library was founded in 1832 with the mission to make its resources available to members of Congress, the Supreme Court, other branches of the U.S. Government and the global legal community, and to sustain and preserve a universal collection of law for future generations. With more than 2.8 million volumes, the Law Library contains the world’s largest collection of law books and other resources from all countries and provides online databases and guides to legal information worldwide through its website at www.loc.gov/law/.

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PR 13-066
2013-04-01
ISSN 0731-3527