Filmmaker celebrates Gettysburg Address with challenge to America

To celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Gettysburg Address filmmaker Ken Burns, along with PBS and other partners, are encouraging everyone in America to “Learn the Address.”

Celebrities such as Whoopi Goldberg and Stephen Colbert have taken the challenge to record themselves reading the address, along with former presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton — and even PBS NewsHour’s own Gwen Ifill.

You can take the challenge, too. “The Address”, a feature-length documentary by Burns, tells the story of the Greenwood School in southern Vermont, where each year the students are encouraged to practice, memorize and recite the Gettysburg Address. The film — airing on PBS on April 15, 2014 — also unlocks the history, context and importance of President Lincoln’s most powerful address.