Area civil rights leaders will have an event in Lawrence the day after president-elect Barack Obama’s inauguration.

The event, scheduled for 7 p.m. Jan. 21, is being held to discuss steps that Obama and congressional leaders “must take to restore our lost civil liberties and the rule of the law,” American Civil Liberties Union organizers said in a news release.

The ACLU of Kansas and Western Missouri and the Douglas County ACLU chapter will host the free event, called The New President and the ACLU: An Evening of Celebration, Inspiration and Action, in the auditorium of the Lawrence Public Library, 707 Vt.

Kansas University political science professor Burdett Loomis and the Rev. Verdell Taylor Jr., of St. Luke AME Church, will participate in a community conversation and discuss, among several things, “the effort to stop illegal surveillance (and) unconstitutional detention and torture,” ACLU leaders said.