Minneapolis spokesman. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1934-2000, 1954-02-12
Abraham Lincoln; Man For The Ages

Americans better appreciation Of the greatness Of
Abraham Lincoln the BY Certainly this be said
70 be true Of the descendants Of American Negro savwho
80 years after the Great Emanepators deahare able
more objectivsy, the man and his work
In the period after LncOlns assassination up until the
1905 Lincoln vered by American Negroes than any
other figure In history with the pOasbls exception Of Jesus
Christ During that period the freed Negroes made rapid
gains only 10 lose most Of them when during the period follow
ing 1915 when Northern business interests backing Republican
Rutherford Hayes Of Ohio made Hayes president by deal with
the South In repayment Hayes removed u g. troops and the
xxx took srrorng Negroes and northern whites In the
south the legislatures enacted Grandfather Clause
Negro headed many southerners thought back slavery
Negroes voting the straight Republican ticket In memory Of
Lincoln voted In Hayes and out went their growing freedom
The Southern Negro robbed Of cItrsnSp and with no man
Of Ancolns stature TO stand up for him nevertheless fought
back and through the tououa work Of white believers Lin
neons death the American Negro has reached point very
close TO first class citizenship.
fashionable among the growing American
Negroes In the early iSOOs to be critical Of Lincoln Many OF
them had begun TO acquire education especially in the NORTH
and could perceive that the real basis for the
states largely economic Negroes who settled In the north
especially critical Of Lincoln record chiefly because the
Republican party ahamelcsay exploited 10 the ht the fact
that Republican Abraham Lincoln freed tho slaves Negro
opinion admittedly grateful that the nation had produced
Lincoln but resented the fact that politicians continually tried
70 sell them the Idea that the Republican Party (of Abraham
Lnoon) went 20 solely free four million Negro slaves
the Republicans from the Sixties into the early sos dim
med the user Of Lincoln for many Of the couny Negroes
Whenever politician mentioned Lneons during II
campaign, Negroes became suspicious
Strange TO say but true Abraham Lincoln IL more widely
appreciated Negroes that he early the cen
tuy and that appreciation grew during the 30 years In which
Democrats were In the white House.
was Grover Cleveland Democrat who showed more In
tss In the problems Of the Negro than the Republican Prea
dents OF ha II during the administration OF FDR
mat circumstances made Negroes vibrany American
than they had felt before Franklin d. Roosevelt had this
In common with Lneon Both the sincerely hated
and most widely beloved Presidents the nation ever had
was during Humans administration when committee
Of distinguished Americans called the Presidents Committee on
Civil Rights made study and issued report by which much Of
the improvement In American living for Negroes IL being
guided All through that report studied closeycould
Be seen the spirit OF Abraham LincOnwho early declared
nation can exist, half slave and half free"
happy circumstance find today that Lincoln IL no
longer In the public mind the property Of political party
OF certain section Of the nation Today his work. sacrifices
his great Humanitarian his foresight his courage are fully
ognaed and he belongs to the people and the Ages America
can be proud that Is still frontier which has In the power
to give the world other LineolnA