American Icons: The Lincoln Memorial

Studio 360 | Sep 14, 2010

This is America's soapbox.

Kurt Andersen looks into how the Lincoln Memorial became an American Icon. Sarah Vowell discusses the battle over Lincoln's memory, which lasted for three generations. Dorothy Height, the late veteran of the Civil Rights Movement, recalled witnessing Marian Anderson's historic concert there in 1939, and hearing Martin Luther King, Jr., declare "I have a dream" in 1963.  And a former White House aide sets the record straight on Richard Nixon's infamous 4 a.m. trip to the Lincoln Memorial, where he met with student protesters there to denounce the Vietnam War.

Actor David Strathairn reads the Gettysburg Address (which is engraved on the Memorial) for Studio 360.


Slideshow: The Lincoln Memorial

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