AMERICAN EXPERIENCE

THE ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

THURSDAY, JANUARY 19 @ 7:00PM

On April 14, 1865, Abraham Lincoln was assassinated at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, DC. Over the next twelve days, as a fractured nation mourned, the largest manhunt ever attempted closed in on his assassin, the twenty-six-year-old renowned actor, John Wilkes Booth.

In November 1860, a little-known Republican state senator from Illinois named Abraham Lincoln was elected president of the United States. Since he was a vocal opponent of slavery, Lincoln’s victory enraged millions of Southern sympathizers, including an acclaimed young actor named John Booth, who blamed abolitionists for the growing division of the country.

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