James Byrd Jr. is an associate professor of American religious history at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., where he has taught a class in religion and war in American history. He is also an expert on this story of Baptists and Methodists in the U.S. He has written two books about religion in early American […]

The U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness was formed in 1987 to coordinate the federal response to homelessness. It works to create a national partnership at every level of government and with the private sector to reduce and end homelessness in the nation while maximizing the effectiveness of the federal government in contributing to that end. […]

William Lee Miller is author of 2002’s Lincoln’s Virtues: An Ethical Biography. He is a scholar at the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia.

Robert Kraynak is a political science professor at Colgate University in Hamilton, N.Y. He is the author of Christian Faith and Modern Democracy: God and Politics in the Fallen World, which examines America’s civil religion and its government.

Julie Roy Jeffrey is a history professor at Goucher College in Baltimore. She has written about the religious landscape of the mid-19th century in relation to Lincoln’s presidency.

The Lincoln Group of the District of Columbia is a historical society dedicated to the study of Lincoln. John Elliff is president.

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is charged with caring for American veterans, their families and their survivors. Eric Shinseki has been Secretary 0f Veterans Affairs since January 2009.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is the nation’s housing agency, charged with increasing homeownership, particularly among minorities, and creating affordable housing. Shaun Donovan has been the Secretary for HUD since January 2009.

Gary Zola is an associate professor of the American Jewish experience at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati. As part of the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission’s celebration, Zola offers a lecture on Lincoln and the Jews that examines how he helped expand their civil rights.