A King and a President
First African American President of Abraham Lincoln Association to be installed on February 12 at Banquet featuring daughter of Martin Luther King Jr.
SPRINGFIELD – The Abraham Lincoln Association will install its new president on Friday, February 12, the first woman and the first African American to head the organization. The installation of Springfield's Kathryn Harris for a two-year term will take place at the annual Abraham Lincoln Association Symposium Banquet in Springfield, which this year features guest speaker Bernice A. King, the daughter of the late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott King.
“I feel the fact that my fellow board members would elect me to this position would be appreciated by Abraham Lincoln,” Harris said. “In light of our banquet guest speaker, I think Dr. King would approve as well.”
Harris is a long-time Abraham Lincoln Association board member who has served as the organization's Vice President since February 2014. She retired last year as Director of Library Services at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield, which she joined in 1990 when the facility was known as the Illinois State Historical Library. Harris has also been a librarian at the SIU Medical School, Illinois State Library, Sangamon State University (now University of Illinois at Springfield), Springfield's Lincoln Public Library, and the library at Florida International University. She is a Distinguished Alumna of the Library and Information Science School at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and received her undergraduate from Southern Illinois University – Carbondale, her home town.
Harris will be installed at the same event that features an address by Bernice A. King, who will accept the Association's Spirit of Lincoln Award on behalf of her parents and will speak on the topic, “Lincoln, King and the Civil Rights Movement.”
Bernice A. King is the Chief Executive Officer of The King Center, which was founded by her mother in 1968. On January 30, 2007, the first anniversary of her mother’s death, Bernice returned to her alma mater at Spelman College to announce the establishment of the “Be A King Scholarship in honor of Coretta Scott King.” She spearheaded the Washington, D.C. commemoration on August 28, 2013, the 50th Anniversary of the March on Washington and her father’s famous “I Have A Dream” speech. Bernice founded Be A King, whose mission is to re-brand and re-image generations of people to elevate the way they Think, Act, Live, and Lead. Bernice received the 2009 Lifetime Achievement Advocate Award from the National Coalition of 100 Black Women, Inc. She has written Hard Questions, Heart Answers: Speeches and Sermons.
The Abraham Lincoln Association Symposium Banquet, held to observe the 207th birthday of Abraham Lincoln, will be held at the President Abraham Lincoln Hotel in downtown Springfield. A reception starts at 6 p.m. followed by dinner at 7 p.m. Tickets are $85 each and can be obtained online at www.abrahamlincolnassociation.
The banquet is one of many activities scheduled each year to commemorate Lincoln's birthday. The annual Abraham Lincoln Association-Benjamin Thomas Symposium begins Thursday, February 11 at 7 p.m. in the Old State Capitol Hall of Representatives and continues Friday, February 12 with presentations at the Lincoln Home Visitor Center, Old State Capitol and the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library.
The Abraham Lincoln Association Symposium is co-sponsored by the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, The University of Illinois Springfield, The Old State Capitol State Historic Site and the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency. For more information about the Abraham Lincoln Association, visit www.abrahamlincolnassociation.
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