Charles Sumner at 200: The Tradition of Civil Rights in America
1,125 views · Published 1 August 2014 · 1:27:56 · Indexed 8 November 2026
Channel: GBH Forum Network · 2014 · Education
To mark the 200th anniversary of his birth in 1811, the city of Cambridge rededicated Charles Sumner’s statue in Harvard Square. Immediately following, Beverly Morgan-Welch of the Museum of African American History and Daniel Coquillette of Harvard Law School discuss Sumner’s significance in America’s ongoing struggles for civil rights. Best known today as the anti-slavery Senator who was beaten almost to death in the Senate Chamber by a pro-slavery congressman, Sumner's legacy of public service includes diplomacy during the Civil War and passage of the first Civil Rights legislation during Reconstruction. Why has this major figure from the anti-slavery movement been forgotten?
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