"The Civil War and the Forging of Character," is a four-year lecture series presented by The Lovett School in cooperation with the Atlanta History Center to mark the sesquicentennial of the Civil War and the Battle of Atlanta.

The purpose of the lecture series is to bring to the Atlanta area speakers and scholars who can engage all of us—students, parents, faculty, alumni, and the community at large—on critical matters of character and integrity as demonstrated during this defining period in our nation’s history. All lectures in this series are free and open to the public. The next two speakers in the series are Ted DeLaney, Ph.D. (speaking at Lovett on April 10) and David W. Blight, Ph.D. (speaking at the Atlanta History Center on May 8.)

Ted DeLaney, Ph.D.
"Frederick Douglass, Millennialism, and the Civil War"
Wednesday, April 10, 2013, at 6:00 pm
Refreshments will be served before the lecture at 5:30 pm. 

Dr. DeLaney is presently writing the story of school desegregation in four Virginia counties, a result of an oral history project involving extensive interviews with former public school students, teachers, and administrators in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education decision. His research and teaching interests include colonial North America, comparative slavery in the Western hemisphere, African American history, Civil Rights, and gay and lesbian history.

Dr. DeLaney received his Ph.D. from the College of William and Mary and his B.A. from Washington and Lee University, where serves as the head of the History Department.

R.s.v.p. to (404) 262-3032, ext. 1717.

David W. Blight, Ph.D.
"Emancipation at 150: How Does the Civil War Have a Hold on Our Historical Imagination?"
In conjunction with the Atlanta History Center's exhibition, Slavery at Jefferson's Monticello.
Wednesday, May 8, 2013, at the Atlanta History Center at 7:00 pm

Dr. Blight is the Class of 1954 Professor of American History at Yale University, joining that faculty in January 2003. Dr. Blight is well-known as the author of Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory, which received eight book awards. His newest book, American Oracle: The Civil War in the Civil Rights Era is an intellectual history of Civil War memory, rooted in the work of Robert Penn Warren, Bruce Catton, Edmund Wilson, and James Baldwin. He is currently writing a biography of Frederick Douglass to be published in 2013. Blight works in many capacities in the world of public history, including on boards of museums and historical societies, and as a member of a small team of advisors to the 9/11 Memorial and Museum. He is also a frequent book reviewer for several newspapers and is a consultant to many documentary films. 

Dr. Blight received his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and an undergraduate degree from Michigan State University. He has taught at Amherst College, Harvard University, and North Central College in Naperville, Ill., and was a public high school teacher in his hometown, Flint, Michigan.

Reservations are required, please call (404) 814-4150 or reserve tickets online at

http://www.atlantahistorycenter.com/lectures.

For more information about "The Civil War and the Forging of Character" lecture series, please visit: http://www.lovett.org/academics/the-civil-war-and-the-forging-of-character/index.aspx.