The Black Man Who Looked Too Much Like Abraham Lincoln
Lincoln look-alike contest judges didn’t know the winner was black until it was too late
The name of Abraham Lincoln, 16th president of the United States, is inextricably linked with African Americans.
Lincoln was elected President in 1860 on a platform of prohibiting the spread of slavery into U. S. territories, like Kansas and Nebraska, that had not yet become states. His most famous single act during the Civil War was the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation, which effectively shut the door on American slavery forever. Lincoln himself viewed signing the Proclamation as the most consequential act of his presidency — and perhaps of his life. As he lifted his pen to affix his name to the document, Lincoln remarked to the group gathered around him to witness this historic event:
“I never in my life felt more certain that I was doing right than I do in signing this paper. If my name ever goes into history it will be for this act, and my whole soul is in it.”
Ever since that moment, Abraham Lincoln has been revered in the United States and throughout the world as the Great Emancipator. And it’s…