The home of one of America’s first film critics will host a cinema series with showings of early African American films on January 21, February 4 and March 3. The event features silent and sound movies from the 1920s.

The Vachel Lindsay Home State Historic Site at 603 S. Fifth Street in Springfield will host the “Early African American Cinema Series: Silent and Sound” in honor of Martin Luther King Jr.’s Birthday in January, African American History Month in February and Women’s History Month in March. All showings will be on Saturdays – January 21, February 4 and March 3 – and all begin at 2 p.m. Since seating is limited, free reservations must be made by calling 217/524-0901.

“People from all across the country visit the Vachel Lindsay Home specifically due to Lindsay's writing about film, and we are thankful for the opportunity to partner with Dr. Angela Winand and the University of Illinois at Springfield to present this important program,” said the Lindsay Home’s Jennie Battles.

Saturday, January 21
Within Our Gates (1920) This silent film was writer-director Oscar Micheaux’s second feature-length film, which was also produced and distributed by his company as a response to D. W. Griffith’s Birth of a Nation (1915). Starring Evelyn Preer as Sylvia Landry, Flo Clements as Alma Prichard, James D. Ruffin as Conrad Drebert, and Jack Chenault as Larry Prichard, it is the story of a young schoolteacher’s struggle to keep a black Southern school from closing. (78 minutes.)

Saturday, February 4
Hallelujah! (1929) This MGM musical directed by King Vidor, starring Daniel L. Haynes, Victoria Spivey and Nina Mae McKinney, is the story of a sharecropper who becomes a famous preacher. Filmed in Tennessee and Arkansas, Hallelujah! was one of the first all-black films produced by a major studio, intended for a general audience and considered so risky a venture by MGM that they required King Vidor to invest his own salary in the production. Vidor's vision was to attempt to present a relatively non-stereotyped view of African American life, and he was nominated for a Best Director Oscar for the film. In 2008, Hallelujah! was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." (90 minutes.)

Saturday, March 3
The Scar of Shame (1927) This crime drama from the Colored Players Film Corporation uses the conventions of the genre to teach a moral lesson as an orphaned heroine searches for love and meaning in her life. The story by David Starkman, as directed by Frank Perugini, is melodramatic yet effective. The “all colored” cast is led by Harry Henderson, Lucia Lynn Moses, Norman Johnstone and Lawrence Chenault. (79 minutes.)

Following each screening, a discussion will be led by Dr. Angela Winand, assistant professor of African American Studies at the University of Illinois at Springfield, where she teaches courses on black women in film history, African American women's biography and autobiography, the Harlem Renaissance, the Civil Rights Movement, and on African Americans and Afro-Creoles in New Orleans history and culture.

Any portions of the series cancelled due to inclement weather will be presented on March 24.

Independent companies, both black-owned and white-owned, competed with mainstream Hollywood productions to serve new black movie-going audiences in urban areas during the decade of the 1920s, making acting careers possible for African American entertainers. Black audiences wanted to see their lives and experiences reflected on screen truthfully and meaningfully, without exaggerated stereotypes of minstrelsy and vaudeville. These films give us a glimpse of the kinds of stories told with the new technology of moving pictures. The Art of the Moving Picture (1915), arguably the first study of film as an art form, earned Vachel Lindsay the respect of film theorists and filmmakers. The Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, which administers the Vachel Lindsay Home, is providing guests with the opportunity to view and discuss these significant early films in the historic home of one of our nation's first film critics.

The Vachel Lindsay Home State Historic Site is the birthplace and longtime residence of poet, author and artist Nicholas Vachel Lindsay, 1879 – 1931. It is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. for free public tours.

Meet a Boy in Blue Civil War during the Old State Capitol's Living History Program featuring Fort Donelson.

The program, at 11 a.m., 1 & 3 p.m., will feature an authentically costumed living history presenter who will discuss Illinois leaders and regiments that played crucial roles in the battle of Fort Donelson, Tennessee, on February 15, 1862. During the Civil War, as the seat of government, the statehouse was the center of the state’s efforts at wartime mobilization. The capitol also provided space for events aiding the needs of local residents as well as soldier relief efforts.

During the 1840s and 1850s, the Old State Capitol was the scene of debate over issues that led the nation to war in 1861. During the Civil War, as the seat of government, the statehouse was the center of the state’s efforts at wartime mobilization. The capitol also provided space for local events aiding the needs of local residents as well as soldier relief efforts.

Visitors are also encouraged to visit the “Boys in Blue” exhibit at the nearby Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library. The exhibit features the faces, letters, sketches and songs of the men who fought in Illinois regiments during the Civil War. Original materials from the Presidential Library’s vast Civil War collections cover select members from Illinois units and include original albumen prints, lithographs, tintypes, cabinet cds, and cartes-de-visite. Original letters, sheet music, artifacts (including a cannon), diaries and sketches created by the soldiers themselves are also displayed. The exhibits present an individual, human side to the conflict that forever changed the course of United States history.

The Old State Capitol State Historic Site, administered by the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, was the seat of Illinois government from 1839 to 1876. Abraham Lincoln, Stephen A. Douglas, Ulysses S. Grant and other famous Illinoisans worked in the building. The Old State Capitol is open for free public tours.

For more information please call 217/785-7960 or email Justin Blandford at justin.blandford@illinois.gov.

The Abraham Lincoln Association (ALA) is celebrating President Lincoln’s 203nd birthday with two days of programs in Springfield, Illinois on Saturday and Sunday, February 11 and 12, with presentations centering on the theme of Lincoln and the Civil War.

In announcing the special event, ALA President Robert Lenz said that he is pleased that the February 12 evening banquet speaker is the Senior United States Senator from Illinois, Richard Durbin. Richard Durbin has been a great supporter of the Lincoln legacy throughout his career. He has championed legislation to help preserve Lincoln sites and encourage public education regarding our Sixteenth President.

The banquet will be held at the President Lincoln Hotel in Springfield on Sunday, February 12 beginning with a reception at 6 p.m. and the dinner at 7 p.m. Tickets are $85 each and can be obtained online at www.abrahamlincolnassociation.org or by calling (866) 865-8500.

The Annual Abraham Lincoln Symposium will begin on Saturday, February 11 at 6:30 p.m. at Brookens Auditorium at the University of Illinois at Springfield with the keynote address, “The Emancipation Proclamation: Myths and Realities,” presented by James Oakes from the City University of New York Graduate Center. Oakes has been teaching and writing about slavery, antislavery and the origins of the Civil War for nearly thirty years. The February 11 program is free and open to the public.

The Symposium continues on Sunday, February 12 at the Old State Capitol State Historic Site in Springfield with the theme, “Lincoln Wages War, 1861-1862”. The 11 a.m. speakers will be Ethan Rafuse from the United States Army Command and General Staff College and Chandra Manning from Georgetown University. A round table featuring all of the Symposium speakers begins at 2:30 p.m. at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library. These February 12 events are free and open to the public.

The Symposium luncheon, which begins at 1 p.m. February 12 at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library, features speaker Howard Jones, who will discuss “Lincoln’s Forgotten Craft: The Art of Diplomacy”. Jones is a Professor at the University of Alabama and the author of more than a dozen books including “Blue and Gray Diplomacy: A History of Union and Confederate Foreign Relations”. The luncheon is $25 per person and reservations can be made online at www.abrahamlincolnassociation.org or by calling (866) 865-8500.