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Annette Gordon-Reed encourages audience to keep working for progress<\/em>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n BETHLEHEM, PA<\/strong>\u00a0–\u00a0Northampton Community College (NCC) welcomed\u00a0Annette Gordon-Reed<\/strong>, Pulitzer Prize\u2013winning historian, author, and Carl M. Loeb University Professor at Harvard University, on April 14 to deliver the keynote lecture as part of its Annual Humanities Program. Gordon-Reed\u2019s lecture traced America\u2019s evolution over its 250-year history.<\/p>\n Her talk was a nod to this year’s Annual Humanities Program theme, \u201cWe the People: Reflecting Back, Building Forward,\u201d honoring the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. This year\u2019s theme also celebrated NCC\u2019s original designation by the National Endowment for the Humanities as a \u201cWe the People\u201d institution, a distinction that placed the College among an elite group committed to strengthening the teaching, study, and understanding of American history and culture.<\/p>\n Gordon-Reed\u2019s lecture focused on the Declaration\u2019s famous preamble, \u201cWe hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.\u201d The words, penned by Thomas Jefferson, are at the heart of her research and her fascination with Jefferson.<\/p>\n That fascination began in the third grade when Gordon-Reed received a fictional children\u2019s biography of the country\u2019s third president told from the perspective of a slave boy. As a child, Gordon-Reed wondered why if \u201call men are created equal,\u201d as she learned in school, the slave boy in her book couldn\u2019t do the things young Jefferson could.<\/p>\n Gordon-Reed\u2019s childhood question would inform much of her scholarship and her career trajectory.<\/p>\n \u201cThese words [the Declaration\u2019s preamble] are real,\u201d she told the audience. \u201cThese words have become what some call \u2018the American creed.\u2019 They are an expression of universal values by saying \u2018this is what it means to be an American.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Gordon-Reed began with Jefferson\u2019s contradictions, calling him \u201ca progressive enmeshed in a regressive system.\u201d She believes, she said, that Jefferson meant what he wrote, yet over the course of his life, he owned nearly 600 enslaved people.<\/p>\n \u201cI believe he knew slavery was wrong but thought, in the future, other Americans would take up the cause,\u201d she said. \u201cHe did not have the confidence that whites and Blacks could live together peacefully.\u201d<\/p>\n Saying that American identity is seen through the prism of the Declaration of Independence, Gordon-Reed traced how the document\u2019s preamble has been used throughout American history from Abraham Lincoln\u2019s famous Gettysburg Address to the 14th and 19th amendments to the Constitution to the landmark decision Brown v. Board of Education ending segregation in public schools to Martin Luther King, Jr.\u2019s I Have A Dream speech during the March on Washington to the election of Barack Obama as the country\u2019s 44th president.<\/p>\n If she has learned anything from history, she said, it is that progress takes work, and it is never linear. The country, she said, has arrived at its semiquincentennial at a \u201cvery interesting moment in American history.\u201d Despite the political division that has swept the nation, she remains optimistic.<\/p>\n \u201cHistory goes along and we ask different questions of the times,\u201d she said. \u201cThe country was founded on principles written by, admittedly, a slaveholder, but also someone who believed in Enlightenment philosophy. We\u2019ve made a great country together. The Founders may not have been able to imagine us now, but that\u2019s what they put in motion.\u201d<\/p>\n Following her lecture, Gordon-Reed fielded questions in a fireside chat led by\u00a0Megan Nocek<\/strong>, assistant professor of psychology; liberal arts (English) major\u00a0Connor Evans<\/strong>; psychology major\u00a0Latita Hill<\/strong>; and social work major\u00a0Quylana Moore<\/strong>.<\/p>\n A decorated author and historian, Gordon-Reed has won 16 book prizes, including the Pulitzer Prize in History in 2009 and the National Book Award in 2008, for\u00a0The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family<\/em>. She is also a past recipient of the National Humanities Medal, the Frederick Douglass Book Prize, the George Washington Book Prize, and the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award. She most recently edited\u00a0Jefferson On Race: A Reader<\/em>, a collection of Jefferson\u2019s writings on the subject of race.<\/p>\n About Northampton Community College<\/strong><\/p>\n Founded in 1967, Northampton Community College (NCC) serves more than 20,000 students annually through degree, workforce training, and community education programs. Committed to access and student success, NCC provides innovative, high-quality learning experiences that prepare students to enter or advance in the workforce or transfer to four-year institutions. With an enduring commitment to the regional communities it serves, NCC remains a vital workforce pipeline and community partner. For more information or to apply, please visit\u00a0northampton.edu<\/a>.\u00a0Follow NCC on\u00a0LinkedIn<\/a>, Instagram\u00a0@NorthamptonCommCollege<\/a>, TikTok\u00a0@NorthamptonCC<\/a>, and\u00a0Facebook<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Annette Gordon-Reed encourages audience to keep working for progress\u00a0 BETHLEHEM, PA\u00a0–\u00a0Northampton Community College (NCC) welcomed\u00a0Annette Gordon-Reed, Pulitzer Prize\u2013winning historian, author, and Carl M. Loeb University Professor at Harvard University, … Continue reading Pulitzer Prize-Winning Historian Caps NCC\u2019s Annual Humanities Program<\/span>