I had the opportunity over this past weekend to visit the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum and Library in Springfield as a guest of State Farm and WNET out of New York in order to preview “Looking For Lincoln”… an new documentary from PBS that will air on Feburary 11th. On friday night we were treated to a talk by Philip Kunhardt III on the companion book of the same name that he and his brother and nephew along the same lines as the new documentary. During the dicussion that preceeded the talk by Mr. Kunhardt, we were told by the producer of the documentary that the movie and the book do not follow each other exactly, for the movie was supposed to be four hours but they only received funding for two hours.
Mr. Kunhardt then gave a short talk on Lincoln and Memory and how Lincoln’s myth is more understood today than the real man. Following his talk was a short (15 minute) segment of the movie which dealt with several of the topics in the entire movie. I was supprised to see two very unexpected parts, one interview with Lerone Bennett who said that all he ever believed about Lincoln was a lie. Any student of slavery and the Civil War will know that Lerone Bennett was the author of “Foreced Into Glory: Abraham Lincoln’s White Dream”, which makes the case that Lincoln was really a white supremicist. The other scene that surprised me was the creator of the documentary, whose journey you follow to find Lincoln, Henry Louis Gates attends the 2008 Sons of Confederate Veterans Annual Convention where they honored Weary Clyburn as a black confederate. If you watch this movie on Feb. 11th, you will have to be the judge as to how you think the Clyburn family looked and felt with this “distinct honor” bestowed upon them by the SCV.
The next day the teachers that had attened the “premier” the previous night joined WNET and State Farm for a educational seminar at the Lincoln Presidential Library to learn how to use the companion website and the lesson plans for our classrooms. To be honest this was more helpful and more applicable to my teaching than the previous night for obvious reasons, but it also helped that during the three our seminar we were able to see more of the documentary. I did recieve the entire DVD as I left the museum on friday night but was not able to watch it in my hotel room for lack of a DVD player. After the seminar I had the chance to visit the museum fully and hit the gift shop. There I parted with $50 of my hard earn teacher’s pay and bought the companion book…and I am glad I did.
On monday I was able to set down and finally watch the entire two hour documentary and look through the companion book and I must say the documenaty needed four hours to finish its discussion of the topics it presented. For example, there is the discussion between Gates and Bennett where Bennett says everything he learned about Lincol was a lie…and that is it…no further fleshing out of that idea or argument. The book goes much deeper into why and how the myth of Lincoln developed after his death up until the death of Robet Todd Lincoln in 1926.
All in all the the experience was a great one. I really enjoyed being invited to take part in something connected to the Lincoln 200th Birthday and to visit the ALPLM. I look forward to trying out some of the lessons associated with the documentary and I really look forward to reading more of the companion book.
