Roanoke College Civil War Series Features Goodwin

Doris Kearns Goodwin

Pulitzer Prize winning historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, whom I have been in love with for about 20 years and who specializes in U.S. presidents, will be the guest speaker Sept. 21 at 7:30 at the Bast Center at Roanoke College with the lecture “Presidential Power after Lincoln.”

She is part of a series of lectures Roanoke College will present. Her Sept. 21 appearance ties with the college's program theme "Mystic Chords of Memory: The Results of the Civil War." This year, the nation celebrates the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, which left a defining mark on Roanoke College. The college was one of few Southern institutions to remain open during this historic battle, and the administration building was used as a hospital for wounded soldiers.

Tickets for the Goodwin lecture are available at www.roanoke.edu/tickets. They are free, beginning Sept. 7.

Other lectures in this Civil War series include:

• “Lincoln and Race”: Wednesday, Nov. 2, 7:30 p.m., Colket Center Wortmann Ballroom. Lucas Morel, acting chairman of the politics department at Washington & Lee University, will speak. Morel has written extensively on Lincoln and civil rights.

• “Specimen Days: Walt Whitman, Virginia, and the Civil War”: Wednesday, Nov. 9, 7:30 p.m., Colket Center Wortmann Ballroom. Artist Binh Danh and author Robert Schultz will discuss Walt Whitman's trip to Virginia to look for his wounded brother. The talk will feature recent leaf prints and Daguerreotypes by Danh.

• “The Role of Roanoke College during the Civil War Era”: Wednesday, Nov. 16, 7:30 p.m., Colket Center Wortmann Ballroom. Dr. Mark Miller, a Roanoke College history professor and college historian, will speak on the topic, "Confederates at the Gates: Roanoke College and the Fight for Academic Freedom in 1911." Dr. Tom Mays, chairman of the history department at Humboldt State University in California, will speak on "Maroons in Gray: Roanoke College in the Civil War."