Join us for a first look at the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History's travelling exhibit, FREEDOM: Emancipation and Its Legacies, on display on the Library's Main Level until February 6. This exhibition examines the story of emancipation from 1850 to 1964, focusing on how, due to the persistence of African Americans, abolitionists, and politicians, the Civil War became an “abolition war”; how the Emancipation Proclamation of January 1863 and the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments transformed the Constitution of the United States; and how we continue to debate the legacies of slavery and emancipation and reach for the goal of equality.
We will also mark the closing of our community art show The Four Freedoms Reimagined. Local Warwick artists created their interpretation of President Roosevelts 4 Freedoms of 1941.
The four freedoms refer to President Franklin D. Roosevelt's January 1941 Four Freedoms State of the Union address in which he identified essential human rights that should be universally protected.[2][ The theme was incorporated into the Atlantic Charter, and became part of the charter of the United Nations. The paintings were reproduced in The Saturday Evening Post for over four consecutive weeks in 1943, alongside essays by prominent thinkers of the day. They became the highlight of a touring exhibition sponsored by The Post and the U.S. Department of the Treasury.
Light refreshments will be served.