Tuskegee University president, Dr. Benjamin F. Payton, will deliver the principal address this weekend at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., to rededicate the monument in honor of the 200th anniversary of the birth of President Abraham Lincoln.
Payton, the fifth president of historic Tuskegee University, is expected to speak about 2:30 p.m. on Saturday, May 30, during a rededication ceremony sponsored by the U.S. Department of the Interior. The memorial, which millions of tourists visit annually, was constructed on the National Mall to honor Lincoln, the 16th U.S. president. The rededication event will serve as the culmination of a three-part series of events held at the memorial in the Lincoln bicentennial year.
“This historic invitation and recognition underscores the continuing vitality of Abraham Lincoln in the life of the nation,” Payton said.
Officials explain that Payton’s selection as a principal speaker for the rededication event honors the precedent established when Dr. Robert Russa Moton, Tuskegee’s second president, delivered a keynote address at the inaugural dedication of the Lincoln Memorial on May 30, 1922. Moton was the successor to Tuskegee’s founding president, Booker T. Washington, one of the best known and influential African-American leaders in U.S. history.
