ALI Symposium at Ford's Theatre to Feature Lincoln Group of DC Presence

by David J. Kent

Washington, DC

Friday, February 20, 2026

The annual Abraham Lincoln Institute (ALI) Symposium will be held at Ford's Theatre on March 21, 2026, and the Lincoln Group of DC will be featured. This is the first of a series of posts highlighting the upcoming symposium.

As mentioned previously, the ALI Symposium this year is a huge change from previous years. Rather than five authors speaking about their books, 2026 will have four panels, each with a pair of speakers engaging in a discussion moderated by a renowned journalist. Each panel has a theme related to the overall theme: "Abraham Lincoln, the Declaration of Independence, and the State of Civic Life Today." This theme came out of an effort initiated by the Lincoln Group of DC in honor of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration and the Founding of our nation. We wanted to emphasize Lincoln's admiration to the Founding and to his contributions to maintaining and reinforcing the founding principle of "all men are created equal." ALI picked up on the effort and created the new format and theme for this year's program.

The first panel is entitled "Paths to the Civil War" and will examine how we got from the founding to the war. The award-winning panel features:

Edda Fields-Black of Carnegie Mellon University. Her recent book, COMBEE: Harriet Tubman, the Combahee River Raid, and Black Freedom During the Civil War was the winner of both the 2025 Pulitzer Prize and the 2025 Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize.

Richard Carwardine of Oxford University. His most recent book, Righteous Strife: How Warring Religious Nationalists Forged Lincoln's Union was awarded the 2025 Harold Holzer Book Award and the 2025 Richard Nelson Current Award of Achievement from the Lincoln Forum. He also won a Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize in 2004.

Steve Inskeep of NPR will moderate the event. Inskeep is a career journalist who has covered the Pentagon, politics, and hosted Weekend All Things Considered. He has hosted NPR's Morning Edition for over twenty years. He is also a widely published author.

David J. Kent, Immediate Past President of the Lincoln Group of DC and Executive Committee Board member of the Abraham Lincoln Institute will introduce the panel on behalf of the LGDC and ALI. His most recent book is Lincoln in New England: In Search of His Forgotten Tours.

Subsequent posts will discuss the other panels, which feature more award-winning authors and journalists. The final panel features a conversation between David Rubenstein and Walter Isaacson. We'll even have Jay Ungar and Molly Mason to provide musical entertainment.

More information can be found on the ALI website. The Symposium is FREE but requires advance registration on the Ford's Theatre website to ensure seating.

See you there!