Thursday, February 19, 2026 | 7 p.m.
National WWI Museum and Memorial
2 Memorial Dr., Kansas City, MO 64108

Register for the Lincoln Event

Reception and Art Contest Awards Ceremony 

Thursday, February 19, 2026| 6 p.m.
National WWI Museum and Memorial
2 Memorial Dr., Kansas City, MO 64108

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The First World War was not only a seismic event in world history. Like the American Civil War and Reconstruction, it was a watershed moment for democracy in the United States.

Over the past century, observers have pondered the enduring impact of the Progressive Era, whose aspirations – built on Abraham Lincoln’s legacy for equality – propelled both Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson into power. One of the most influential vestiges of the Era that can be traced in our time is the American Fund for Public Service. It helped set in motion the modern law of free speech; it financed the campaign that led to Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, outlawing segregated schools; and it nurtured the model of the labor unions to which nearly 15 million Americans now belong.

Discover the astonishing story of a lost world of men and women who remade American democracy amid the reverberations of the Great War with John Fabian Witt, professor at Yale Law School and author of Pulitzer Prize finalist “Lincoln’s Code: The Laws of War in American History” and most recently, “The Radical Fund: How a Band of Visionaries and a Million Dollars Upended America.”

About the USM Lincoln Event Series

The University of Saint Mary started the annual Lincoln series in 1999 to spotlight the Hall Lincoln Collection, housed in USM's Keleher Learning Commons. Over the years, USM's primary Lincoln Event has welcomed a variety of luminaries for the featured speaker. Previous guests have included politicians, historians, U.S. Army generals, best-selling authors, and actors who've portrayed First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln and President Lincoln himself.