One hundred fifty years ago, on Good Friday, April 14, 1865, the Union flag was raised over Fort Sumter, S.C. Buoyed by this latest victory, which came five days after the surrender of Lee’s army at Appomattox, President Abraham Lincoln welcomed guests to the White House until the early evening, then he departed with his wife for Ford’s Theatre to attend a comedic play, “Our American Cousin.”
Cheers from the audience interrupted the production as the couple entered the Presidential box accompanied by two guests. Late in play, Lincoln was shot in the back of his head by John Wilkes Booth. Mortally injured, he was carried across the street to a private home. Little could be done for him. Early the following morning, Abraham Lincoln died.
Dr. Clif CleavelandWe can only speculate on the course of history had Lincoln not been killed. On March 9 he had concluded his Second Inaugural Address with these words: “With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphans, to do all which may achieve a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”
Had Lincoln lived would Reconstruction have been as forcefully imposed upon the Confederate states? Sensing weakness in Lincoln’s successor, Andrew Johnson, radical Republicans made the conditions of Reconstruction more onerous, intensifying bitterness among Southern whites.
In a full second term, could Lincoln have crafted a different outcome for former slaves? Four million slaves freed by the war would soon be relegated to non-citizenship as white majorities regained control of legislatures in the former Confederate states.
Jim Crow laws would deprive black residents of Southern states of voting rights and equal treatment in education, employment and the justice system. Bands of white hooded Ku Klux Klansmen would terrorize black communities, burning churches and lynching more than 2,000 black men, along with some women and children. Racial atrocities continued into the 1960s.
Repressive, racist laws were slowly repealed. In 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled segregated schools unconstitutional. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 prohibited racial discrimination at the ballot box.
But racial inequality persists. Recent shootings of unarmed black men reminds us of disparities in law enforcement practices in some jurisdictions, mostly recently in North Charleston, S.C. White college fraternities sing appalling racist lyrics. Nooses are hung from trees and statues on Southern campuses.
The Texas chapter of the Sons of the Confederacy sues for the right to have license plates which display the Confederate flag. Recent state laws dealing with religious rights of companies could easily be used to deny services to black people.
Our black citizens lag in most measures of longevity, health status, educational opportunity and income. Nationally, longevity for black males has increased but is still 5.4 years less than life expectancy for white males. For women the gap is 3.8 years. In Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana the gap has not closed.
Racial disparities in health care availability and outcome remain a troubling problem. Poverty contributes to delayed care of poorer quality. In Southern states in particular, black students are less likely to graduate from high school or obtain post-secondary education of any sort, leading to markedly lower job prospects.
The challenge of Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address has not been met. This anniversary of his death is a time for serious reflection and rededication to unfinished business of justice and equal opportunity for all residents of this once-fractured country whose repair is still in progress.
Contact Clif Cleaveland at cleaveland1000@comcast.net.