Knowing Him by Heart

African Americans on Abraham Lincoln

Fred Lee Hord, Matthew D. Norman, Fred Lee Hord, Matthew D. Norman

• Publisher: University of Illinois Press
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN:
  9780252089053
  9780252044687
• eBook ISBN:
  9780252053702
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Political Biographies
• Index: History

Winner of an Abraham Lincoln Institute Book Award

Though not blind to Abraham Lincoln's imperfections, Black Americans long ago laid a heartfelt claim to his legacy. At the same time, they have consciously reshaped the sixteenth president's image for their own social and political ends. Frederick Hord and Matthew D. Norman's anthology explores the complex nature of views on Lincoln through the writings and thought of Frederick Douglass, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Mary McLeod Bethune, Thurgood Marshall, Malcolm X, Gwendolyn Brooks, Barbara Jeanne Fields, Barack Obama, and dozens of others. The selections move from speeches to letters to book excerpts, mapping the changing contours of the bond--emotional and intellectual--between Lincoln and Black Americans over the span of one hundred and fifty years.

A comprehensive and valuable reader, Knowing Him by Heart examines Lincoln's still-evolving place in Black American thought.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Frequently Cited Sources
• Introduction
• Frederick Douglass, Emancipation Day Address at Poughkeepsie, New York, August 2, 1858
• Frederick Douglass, “The Chicago Nominations,” June 1860
• H. Ford Douglas, Address at Framingham, Massachusetts, July 4, 1860
• Frederick Douglass, “The Inaugural Address,” April 1861
• Thomas Hamilton, “President Lincoln’s Inaugural,” March 16, 1861
• Robert Hamilton, “The Fatal Step Backward,” September 21, 1861
• Jabez P. Campbell, “The President and the Colored People,” Trenton, New Jersey, October 1, 1861
• Robert Hamilton, “The President’s Message,” December 7, 1861
• Robert Hamilton, “The Hanging of Gordon for Man Stealing,” March 1, 1862
• Henry Mcneal Turner on Lincoln’s Proposal for Compensated Emancipation, March 16, 1862
• Robert Hamilton, “The Emancipation Message,” March 22, 1862
• Daniel Alexander Payne, Account of Meeting with Lincoln, April 1862
• Henry Highland Garnet on Emancipation in Washington, DC, May 12, 1862
• Philip A. Bell on Lincoln’s Revocation of Gen. Hunter’s Emancipation Decree, June 14, 1862
• Edward M. Thomas to Abraham Lincoln, Washington, DC, August 16, 1862
• Frederick Douglass, “The President and His Speeches,” September 1862
• Resolutions of Newtown, New York Meeting on Lincoln’s Colonization Proposal, August 20, 1862
• Alfred P. Smith, Letter to President Lincoln in Response to Colonization Proposal, Saddle River, New Jersey, September 5, 1862
• Frances Ellen Watkins Harper on Lincoln’s Colonization Proposal, September 27, 1862
• Philip A. Bell on the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, September 27, 1862
• Frederick Douglass, “Emancipation Proclaimed,” October 1862
• George B. Vashon, Open Letter to President Lincoln on Colonization, October 1862
• Henry McNeal Turner, Response to Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, September 26, 1862
• Thomas Strother on Lincoln’s Colonization Proposal, October 4, 1862
• Ezra R. Johnson, “The Liberty Bells are Ringing,” October 4, 1862
• C. P. S., “The President on Emancipation,” October 4, 1862
• Free Black People of Washington, DC, Letter to President Lincoln on Colonization, November 2, 1862
• Frederick Douglass, “January First 1863”
• Resolutions from Emancipation Celebration at Beaufort, South Carolina, January 1, 1863
• Philip A. Bell, “The Year of Jubilee Has Come!” January 3, 1863
• Robert Hamilton, “The Great Event,” January 3, 1863
• Emancipation Celebration at Trenton, New Jersey, January 1, 1863
• James Smith, Report on Emancipation Celebration at Elmira, New York, January 5, 1863
• Alexander T. Augusta to Abraham Lincoln, Toronto, Canada, January 7, 1863
• Jeremiah B. Sanderson, Address at Emancipation Jubilee in San Francisco, January 14, 1863
• Osborne P. Anderson, Remarks at Emancipation Celebration in Chicago, January 1, 1863
• H. Ford Douglas to Frederick Douglass, Colliersville, Tennessee, January 8, 1863
• Thomas Morris Chester, Speech at Cooper Institute, New York, January 20, 1863
• James H. Hudson Criticizes Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation, February 25, 1863
• Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, “The President’s Proclamation,” March 7, 1863
• John Proctor to Abraham Lincoln, Beaufort, South Carolina, April 18, 1863
• William Slade to Abraham Lincoln, Washington, DC, April 28, 1863
• Robert Purvis, Address to the American Anti-Slavery Society, New York, May 12, 1863
• Hannah Johnson to Abraham Lincoln, Buffalo, New York, July 31, 1863
• Frederick Douglass, “The Commander-in-Chief and His Black Soldiers,” August 1863
• Leonard A. Grimes to Abraham Lincoln, Washington, DC, August 21, 1863
• Jeremiah Asher to Abraham Lincoln, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, September 7, 1863
• Robert Hamilton on Lincoln’s Letter to James C. Conkling, September 12, 1863
• John Willis Menard to Abraham Lincoln, New York, September 16, 1863
• Robert Hamilton Endorsing Lincoln for a Second Term as President, October 24, 1863
• African Civilization Society, Address to Abraham Lincoln, Washington, DC, November 5, 1863
• Frederick Douglass, Address to the American Anti-Slavery Society, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, December 4, 1863
• Philip A. Bell on President Lincoln’s Annual Message, December 12, 1863
• William Florville to Abraham Lincoln, Springfield, Illinois, December 27, 1863
• Henry Johnson on Meeting Lincoln at the White House, January 1, 1864
• Thomas R. Street, Emancipation Day Address, Virginia City, Nevada Territory, January 1, 1864
• Philip A. Bell Endorses Lincoln for a Second Term in Office, January 9, 1864
• John H. Morgan et al. to Abraham Lincoln, Pensacola, Florida, January 16, 1864
• Mattild Burr to Abraham Lincoln, January 18, 1864
• Amos G. Beman on the First Anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, January 23, 1864
• Richard H. Cain to Abraham Lincoln, Washington, DC, January 27, 1864
• Jean Baptiste Roudanez and Arnold Bertonneau, Memorial to Abraham Lincoln, March 10, 1864
• Petition of North Carolina Freedmen to Abraham Lincoln, April or May 1864
• Don Carlos Rutter to Abraham Lincoln, Saint Helena Island, South Carolina, May 29, 1864
• George E. Stephens Criticizes Lincoln’s Policies on Race, May 26, 1864
• James W. C. Pennington Supports the Reelection of Lincoln, June 9, 1864
• “Africano” Opposes the Reelection of Lincoln, Point Lookout, Maryland, July 18, 1864
• Annie Davis to Abraham Lincoln, Bel Air, Maryland, August 25, 1864
• Frederick Douglass to Abraham Lincoln, Rochester, New York, August 29, 1864
• Robert Hamilton on the Presidential Election, September 24, 1864
• “Africano” Prefers Lincoln over George B. McClellan in the Presidential Election, Point Lookout, Maryland, September 2, 1864
• S. W. Chase, Remarks to Abraham Lincoln upon Presenting a Bible, September 7, 1864
• Sojourner Truth, Account of October 29, 1864 Meeting with Abraham Lincoln
• Robert Hamilton Gives Thanks for Lincoln’s Reelection, November 19, 1864
• Martin Delany, Account of Meeting with Abraham Lincoln, February 8, 1865
• George Washington to Abraham Lincoln, Hilton Head, South Carolina, March 19, 1865
• Thomas Morris Chester, Report on Lincoln’s Visit to Richmond, Virginia, April 4, 1865
• Isaac J. Hill, Account of Lincoln’s Visit to Richmond, April 4, 1865
• Alexander H. Newton, Account of Lincoln’s Visit to Richmond, April 4, 1865
• Jacob Thomas, Sermon Preached in Memory of Abraham Lincoln at AME Zion Church, Troy, New York, April 16, 1865
• Resolutions Passed on Lincoln’s Assassination in Middletown, Connecticut, April 20, 1865
• Martin Delany, Proposal for a Monument to Abraham Lincoln, April 20, 1865
• Robert Hamilton, “Thy Will Be Done,” April 22, 1865
• James W. C. Pennington on Lincoln’s Funeral Procession through New York City, April 27, 1865
• Angeline R. Demby, Poem in Memory of Abraham Lincoln, April 29, 1865
• Reaction to Lincoln’s Assassination, Baltimore, Maryland, April 1865
• Henry O. Wagoner, Report on Lincoln’s Funeral Procession in Chicago, May 2, 1865
• George W. Le Vere, Eulogy of Abraham Lincoln, New Orleans, Louisiana, May 22, 1865
• Frederick Douglass, Speech at Cooper Institute, New York, June 1, 1865
• Frederick Douglass, Draft of a Speech on Lincoln, circa December 1865
• Address of the Illinois Convention of Colored Men to the American People, Galesburg, Illinois, October 16–18, 1866
• Elizabeth Keckley, Behind the Scenes, 1868
• Paul Trevigne on Emancipation Day, January 1, 1869
• Thomas N. C. Liverpool, Address on Lincoln’s Birthday, Cincinnati, Ohio, February 12, 1873
• Frederick Douglass, Address at Dedication of the Freedmen’s Monument, Washington, DC, April 14, 1876
• H. Cordelia Ray, “Lincoln,” a Poem Written for Dedication of the Freedmen’s Monument, Washington, DC, April 14, 1876
• George Washington Williams, A History of the Negro Race in America, 1882
• Emmanuel K. Love, Emancipation Day Address at Savannah, Georgia, January 2, 1888
• William S. Scarborough, Remarks at Ohio Republican League Club Lincoln Banquet, Columbus, Ohio, February 13, 1888
• John Mercer Langston, Memorial Day Address at Washington, DC, May 30, 1891
• Peter H. Clark on Lincoln and Emancipation, May 18, 1892
• Frederick Douglass, Address at Lincoln Birthday Celebration, Brooklyn, New York, February 13, 1893
• E. W. S. Hammond, “Lincoln on the Negro,” May 11, 1893
• Charles W. Anderson, Address on the Emancipation Proclamation, Chicago, February 12, 1895
• Booker T. Washington, Address at the Union League Club, Brooklyn, New York, February 12, 1896
• Harriet Tubman, Statement on Abraham Lincoln, July 1896
• Julius F. Taylor, Critique of Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation, August 7, 1897
• Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Emancipation Day Address at Decatur, Illinois, September 22, 1899
• Paul Laurence Dunbar, “Lincoln,” 1899
• Elizabeth Thomas, Reminiscence of Abraham Lincoln, 1900
• Archibald H. Grimke, “Abraham Lincoln,” March 1900
• Elizabeth Keckly on Lincoln, 1901
• “The Negro’s Natal Day,” February 1904
• William A. Sinclair, The Aftermath of Slavery, 1905
• Jesse Max Barber, “Abraham Lincoln and the Negro,” February 1905
• Mary Church Terrell, Address on Abraham Lincoln, New York, February 13, 1905
• T. Thomas Fortune, Address on Lincoln, Montclair, New Jersey, February 16, 1906
• Reverdy C. Ransom, Address on Abraham Lincoln, circa 1907
• W. E. B. Du Bois, Address Delivered at Hull House, Chicago, Illinois, February 12, 1907
• William Monroe Trotter on Commemorating the Lincoln Centennial, January 18, 1908
• Maude K. Griffin, “Lincoln—Man of Many Sides,” April 1908
• Hightower T. Kealing, “Lincoln’s Birthday—The Great American Day,” January 1909
• Silas X. Floyd, Address at Emancipation Day Celebration in Augusta, Georgia, January 1, 1909
• George L. Knox, “Celebrating in Memory of Lincoln,” January 2, 1909
• Selections from the American Missionary, February 1909: Thomas S. Inborden, George W. Henderson, William Pickens, Kelly Miller, Etta M. T. Cottin, Archibald H. Grimke, and John M. Gandy
• Fred R. Moore, “Lincoln and the Negro,” February 1909
• Sylvanie F. Williams, “Abraham Lincoln and Emancipation,” February 1909
• Harry C. Smith, “Lincoln in a True Light,” February 6, 1909
• James H. Magee, Address at Lincoln Centennial Commemoration, Springfield, Illinois, February 12, 1909
• Booker T. Washington, Address at Republican Club of New York, February 12, 1909
• James L. Curtis, Address on Centennial of Lincoln’s Birth, February 12, 1909
• John W. E. Bowen Sr., Address at Lincoln Centennial Commemoration, Chicago, February 12, 1909
• Cora J. Ball, “On Lincoln’s Centennial,” February 13, 1909
• Fred R. Moore, “Lincoln Day and the White Folks,” March 1909
• Thomas Nelson Baker, “Speech of Lincoln,” March–April 1909
• Josephine Silone Yates, “Lincoln the Emancipator,” April 1910
• Henry McNeal Turner, “Reminiscences of the Proclamation of Emancipation,” January 1913
• James Weldon Johnson, “Father, Father Abraham,” February 1913
• William H. Lewis, Speech before the Massachusetts General Assembly, February 12, 1913
• W. E. B. Du Bois, Address to Commemorate the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation and Lincoln’s Birthday, Chicago, February 12, 1913
• Booker T. Washington, Address at Rochester, New York, February 12, 1913
• John H. Murphy Sr., “A Government for the People,” July 5, 1913
• Richard R. Wright Sr., Address at the Emancipation Proclamation Exposition, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, September 14, 1913
• Theophile T. Allain, Address to Commemorate the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, Decatur, Illinois, September 23, 1913
• Olivia Ward Bush-Banks, “Abraham Lincoln,” 1914
• Grand Household of Ruth, Resolution on Equal Suffrage, August 1915
• Richard W. Gadsden, Address on Lincoln’s Birthday, Savannah, Georgia, February 12, 1918
• Edward A. Johnson, Speech on Lincoln’s Birthday in the New York State Assembly, Albany, New York, February 12, 1918
• Alice Dunbar-Nelson, “Lincoln and Douglass,” 1920
• Hubert H. Harrison, “Lincoln and Liberty—Fact Versus Fiction,” March 1921
• Carter G. Woodson, The Negro in Our History, 1922
• Robert R. Moton, Address at the Dedication of the Lincoln Memorial, Washington, DC, May 1922
• Georgia Douglas Johnson, “To Abraham Lincoln,” 1922
• W. E. B. Du Bois, Editorials on Abraham Lincoln, July 1922 and September 1922
• National Association of Colored Women, Speeches and a Resolution Commemorating Abraham Lincoln, 1923–1924
• Langston Hughes, “Lincoln Monument: Washington,” March 1927
• Charles Chesnutt, Address to the Harlan Club, Cleveland, Ohio, February 14, 1928
• Walter White, “If Lincoln Were Here,” Radio Address on Lincoln’s Birthday, February 12, 1929
• Lamar Perkins, Address in the New York State Assembly, Albany, New York, February 12, 1930
• Samuel A. Haynes on Lincoln and Emancipation Day, January 7, 1932
• William E. Lilly, Set My People Free: A Negro’s Life of Lincoln, 1932
• Robert L. Vann, “The Patriot and the Partisan,” Speech Delivered in Cleveland, Ohio, September 11, 1932
• Carter G. Woodson, “Abolitionists Worried Lincoln,” November 24, 1932
• William Lloyd Imes, “A Negro’s Tribute to Lincoln,” Radio Address on Lincoln’s Birthday, February 12, 1935, Station WMCA, New York
• Eugene Gordon on Lincoln, Boston, Massachusetts, February 1935
• Arthur W. Mitchell, Address in the US House of Representatives, June 1, 1936
• Grace Evans, Remarks at Emancipation Day Celebration, Connersville, Indiana, September 22, 1936
• Harry C. Smith, Editorial Critical of Lincoln, February 20, 1937
• Selections from WPA Slave Narratives, 1936–1938
• Aaron H. Payne, Address at Lincoln Day Dinner, New York, February 12, 1940
• Claude McKay, “Lincoln—Apostle of a New America,” February 13, 1943
• March on Washington Movement, Press Release Regarding the Celebration of Lincoln’s Birthday, February 14, 1943
• Roscoe Conkling Simmons, Address to a Joint Session of the Illinois General Assembly, February 13, 1944
• Joel A. Rogers, “Lincoln Wanted to Deport Negroes and Opposed Equal Rights,” February 26, 1944
• Mary McLeod Bethune, Address on Lincoln’s Birthday, Washington, DC, February 12, 1945
• John Hope Franklin, From Slavery to Freedom, 1947
• Ella Baker, Emancipation Day Address, Atlanta, Georgia, January 1, 1947
• Luther Porter Jackson, “The Views of Abraham Lincoln on the Race Question,” February 12, 1948
• Willard Townsend, “Lincoln Did Not Envision 1952 in His Speech at Gettysburg,” January 19, 1952
• Ralph J. Bunche, Address at the Lincoln Association of Jersey City, New Jersey, February 12, 1954
• Mary McLeod Bethune on Lincoln’s Birthday, February 12, 1955
• Roy Wilkins, Radio Address to Commemorate Lincoln’s Birthday, February 11 or 12, 1958
• Mordecai W. Johnson, Address on Abraham Lincoln before the Michigan Legislature, Lansing, Michigan, February 12, 1959
• Carl J. Murphy, “Freedom Is Never a Gift,” January 23, 1960
• Jackie Robinson, “Kennedy Not Another Lincoln,” June 9, 1962
• Martin Luther King Jr., Draft of an Address to Commemorate Centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation at the Park Sheraton Hotel, New York, New York, September 12, 1962
• Thurgood Marshall, Remarks on Commemoration of the Centennial of the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation at the Lincoln Memorial, Washington, DC, September 22, 1962
• Edith Sampson, Address on the Emancipation Proclamation, circa 1962–1963
• Benjamin Quarles, Lincoln and the Negro, 1962
• John Hope Franklin, The Emancipation Proclamation, 1963
• St. Clair Drake, the Emancipation Proclamation Centennial Lectures, Chicago, January–February, 1963
• Charles H. Wesley, Remarks at Opening of the Emancipation Proclamation Exhibit at the National Archives, Washington, DC, January 4, 1963
• Daisy Bates, “After 100 Years—Where Do We Stand?” An Address on the Emancipation Proclamation, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, January 6, 1963
• Malcolm X, Speech at the University of California, October 11, 1963
• Gwendolyn Brooks, “In the Time of Detachment, in the Time of Cold, 1965”
• John Hope Franklin, “Abraham Lincoln and Civil Rights,” an Address at Gettysburg National Cemetery, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, November 19, 1965
• Julius Lester, Look Out Whitey, Black Power’s Gon’ Get Your Mama, 1968
• Lerone Bennett Jr., “Was Abe Lincoln a White Supremacist?” February 1968
• Henry Lee Moon, “Abraham Lincoln: A Man to Remember and Honor,” February 1968
• John H. Sengstacke, “A New Lincoln,” February 12, 1968
• Norman E. W. Hodges, Breaking the Chains of Bondage, 1972
• Arvarh Strickland, Remarks at the Abraham Lincoln Symposium, Springfield, Illinois, February 12, 1980
• Mary Frances Berry, “Lincoln & Civil Rights for Blacks,” Address at the Abraham Lincoln Association Banquet, Springfield, Illinois, February 12, 1980
• Vincent Harding, There Is a River, 1981
• Clarence Thomas on Lincoln and the Declaration of Independence, 1987
• Barbara Jeanne Fields, “Who Freed the Slaves?” 1990
• Lerone Bennett Jr., Forced into Glory, 2000
• Henry Louis Gates Jr., Lincoln on Race and Slavery, 2009
• Barack Obama, “What I See in Lincoln’s Eyes,” July 2005
• Barack Obama, Remarks at the Abraham Lincoln Association Banquet, Springfield, Illinois, February 12, 2009
• Credits
• Index
• Back Cover