ALI Symposium at Ford's Theatre Goes Big Time - Save the Date

By David J. Kent

Washington, DC

Sunday, January 11, 2026

The Abraham Lincoln Institute, with co-sponsorship from the Lincoln Group of D.C., will present the annual ALI Symposium at Ford's Theatre on Saturday, March 21, 2026. As I previewed before, the Lincoln Group proposed that ALI do a special program that honors Abraham Lincoln's commitment to the Declaration of Independence and the aspiration that "all men are created equal" to mark the 250th anniversary of the Declaration in 2026. ALI has followed through and developed a new format under the theme of "Abraham Lincoln, the Declaration of Independence, and the State of Civic Life Today."

The symposium will be at the historic Ford's Theatre in downtown Washington, DC. The full-day event will feature four stellar panels moderated by some of the best journalists extant. As described on the ALI website, the panels are:

Paths to the Civil War

This conversation will feature a discussion between Edda Fields-Black of Carnegie Mellon University, the author of a 2025 Pulitzer Prize and Lincoln Prize-winning book Combee: Harriet Tubman, the Combahee River Raid, and Black Freedom during the Civil War, and Richard Carwardine of Oxford University, the author of Righteous Strife: How Warring Religious Nationalists Forged Lincoln’s Union, which also won the 2025 Lincoln Prize from the Lincoln Forum. This panel will be moderated by Steve Inskeep of NPR News.

Lincoln and the Declaration’s Promise of Equality

This panel will feature Akhil Amar of Yale Law School, author of a new book, Born Equal: Remaking America’s Constitution, 1840-1920, in conversation with Lucas Morel of Washington and Lee University, author of Lincoln and the American Founding (2020) and Measuring the Man: The Writings of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln (2025). Professor Amar will also receive the ALI's 2026 book prize that day. This conversation will be moderated by Jeff Rosen, president of the National Constitution Center.

Lincoln and Democracy in the Past, Present, and Future

The panel will feature Annette Gordon-Reed, a Harvard Law professor and the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and author of The Hemingses of Monticello, in conversation with Richard Brookhiser, author of Founder’s Son: A Life of Abraham Lincoln. Judy Woodruff, former host of the PBS NewsHour and now host of a program on America at a Crossroads, will moderate.

Lincoln, the Declaration, and Civic Life Today

The fourth and final panel will feature a discussion with David Rubenstein and the six invited speakers on the subject “Abraham Lincoln, the Declaration of Independence, and the State of Civic Life Today.” Rubenstein is CEO of the Carlyle Group, principal owner of the Baltimore Orioles, and chairman of the National Gallery of Art, the Council on Foreign Relations, and the Economic Club of Washington, D.C. Rubenstein is a long-time supporter of his historic endeavors and published Abraham Lincoln: His Life in Print.

Put this date - March 21, 2026 - on your calendar now and plan to be at Ford's for this special event. Tickets are free but must be reserved in advance via the Ford's Theatre box office. Check soon on the Abraham Lincoln Institute and Ford's websites for links on how to get tickets, which we'll also add here when available.

Because the LGDC is co-sponsoring the event with ALI, LGDC past president and current ALI executive committee member David J. Kent will introduce one of the panels and offer a special message on behalf of the Lincoln Group.

See you there!