Analysis Of Abraham Lincoln, A White Supremacist By Lerone Bennett

In 1968, during times of tension in the United States revolving around the Civil Rights Movements, Lerone Bennett, an African American voiced his views on Abraham Lincoln. Lerone Bennett voiced his opinions in an article published by Ebony Magazine called Lincoln, a White Supremacist, in 1968. Lincoln, a White Supremacist is about Abraham Lincoln being the president of the white man. Furthermore, being written by an African American bought more attention to the article, because African Americans usually praised Lincoln. Although Lerone Bennett failed to prove how Abraham Lincoln’s childhood affected his view of African Americans and slavery thoroughly, Bennett proved Lincoln’s desire to keep African Americans and white people segregated through

Lerone Bennett, in Lincoln, a White Supremacist, 1968, believed that black people and white people would be better off separated by a large body of water, preferably the Atlantic Ocean. After inviting a few free slaves to the White House, Lincoln went on to say, “You and we are different races. Your race suffers very greatly, many of them, by living among us, while ours suffer from your presence. Even when you cease to be slaves, you are yet far removed from being placed on an equality with white people (1862).” Lincoln’s quote proves Bennett’s argument, because it foreshadows Lincoln’s idea of colonization of the black people. For months after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation out of Lincoln’s own will, he was involved in a plan to colonize slave and African Americans to a coast off the island of Haiti (Bennett, 1968). Lincoln’s plan angered some and pleased others, as well as a hostile reception from the black community, but the “venture” failed. During the celebrated debates with Stephen A. Douglas, Lincoln explicitly supported the doctrine of white supremacy, and he opposed granting civil and political rights to black people. In Mr. Lincoln, 1957, by J.G. Randall, a former professor at the University of Illinois who specialized on Abraham Lincoln, Lincoln was referring to a temporary adjustment after the emancipation while awaiting the time when, for colored people, “New homes . . . [could] be found . . . in congenial climes and with people of their own blood and race (page 346).” Randall provides further evidence in proving Bennett’s point by explaining the Proclamation was a stratagem. While Lincoln was in the middle of colonization, the Congress was busy emancipating, which later lead to Lincoln signing the document against his liking. To further prove Lerone Bennett, an article called, Abraham Lincoln and