About the Ford Hall Forum

Mission

The Ford Hall Forum’s mission is to foster an informed and effective citizenry and to promote freedom of speech through the public presentation of lectures, debates and discussions. Its events illuminate the key issues facing our society by bringing to its podium knowledgeable and thought-provoking speakers, including some of the most controversial opinion leaders of our times. These speakers are presented in person, for free, and in settings, which facilitate frank and open debate.


A Century of Free Speech

The Forum began in 1908 as a series of Sunday evening public meetings held at Ford Hall on Beacon Hill by George W. Coleman, a prominent Boston businessman. Coleman’s unique format, which provided equal time to speakers’ remarks then questions from the audience, gave any interested citizen the opportunity to debate issues with some of the most influential figures of the day. According to Coleman’s vision, the lecture series would enable the “full, free, and open discussion of all vital questions affecting human welfare.”

Since Coleman’s time, the Forum has gone on to host discussions with the some of the most intriguing figures in our nation’s modern history, including Maya Angelou, Louis Brandeis, W.E.B. DuBois, Robert Frost, Al Gore, Garrison Keillor, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Henry Kissinger, Ayn Rand, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Malcolm X, to name just a few. While the original Ford Hall no longer exists, the Forum’s public conversations have continued throughout the Greater Boston area with the generous support of foundations, corporations, academic institutions, and individuals.

As we embark upon our second century or serving Greater Boston and beyond, we hope you will join us in this public conversation that has been informing, provoking, inspiring, engaging, and illuminating for one hundred years and counting.


A Partnership with Suffolk University

The Ford Hall Forum is pleased to announce its new partnership with Suffolk University. The lecture series’ administrative offices have already taken up residence in the John E. Fenton Building – just one block away from the where the original Ford Hall once stood – and lectures will begin on campus at the beginning in the fall of 2008. Suffolk University, which is also celebrating its centennial, is providing the Forum with the opportunity to “come home” not only to Beacon Hill but also to an academic environment that shares a similar spirit and history of public education and civic dialogue. According to Dean Kenneth S. Greenberg of Suffolk’s College of Arts and Sciences, “Both organizations were born in the progressive era, and both have a commitment to free speech and interactive learning. We are eager for our community to engage in the excitement of live, public discourse that is the heart of the Ford Hall Forum events.”

The First Amendment Award

The Louis P. and Evelyn Smith First Amendment Award is presented to an individual or organization that has demonstrated extraordinary commitment to promoting and facilitating the thoughtful exercise of our rights of freedom of expression. Previous recipients include civil rights activist Rosa Parks; television producer Norman Lear; musician and political activist Pete Seeger; and founder of CNN Ted Turner.

Click here for a list of all past recipients.

View Recent Events

Audio and video of recent events are available at the
WGBH Forum Network and FORA.tv.