On January 1, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which declared “that all persons held as slaves" within the rebellious Confederate states “are, and henceforward shall be free.” The Proclamation has been both acclaimed as an essential step toward the national abolition of slavery and criticized as being too limited in its scope.

On Friday, October 9, at 12 PM, join Roosevelt Montás, former director of Columbia’s Core and currently Professor of Liberal Education at Bard College, for a close reading of the Proclamation and a discussion of its enduring significance.