Jefferson Davis’ arrival in Montgomery will be remembered on Wednesday, Feb. 16, with a lecture and reception at the Alabama Department of Archives and History.
The 5:30 p.m. free event, which includes the lecture, “The Man and the Hour Have Met,” followed by a reception, is sponsored by the archives and the First White House of the Confederacy.
Dr. Ralph Draughon Jr., a member of the Alabama Historical Commission, will discuss the speech given by Alabama “fire eater,” secessionist William L. Yancey, when he greeted Davis at the Exchange Hotel 150 years ago, prior to Davis’s inauguration as president of the Confederate States of America.
Draughon will conclude the program by delivering Yancey’s speech in 19th-century oratorical style.
The commemoration event is one in a series of programs affiliated with Becoming Alabama, a statewide partnership of state agencies, historical groups, and cultural organizations to commemorate the coinciding anniversaries of the Creek War and War of 1812, the Civil War, and major events in the civil rights movement.
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