Today, while helping one of my students, I read several poems by Vievee Francis, who I have mentioned before on my blog. Her book Blue-Tail Fly is a series of persona poems about various figures ranging from before the Mexican American War until after the Civil War.
One of those characters is Abraham Lincoln. One historical fact that I learned today based on research I did in conjunction with reading these poems: Abraham Lincoln was a racist.
Lincoln is quoted as saying in his debates with Stephen F. Douglas in 1858:
“I will say then that I am not, nor ever have been in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races – that I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality.”
And yet, Lincoln did more personally than any other president to bring about freedom for African-Americans.
Black people at that time knew what Lincoln’s racist views were, but they also watched as his actions affected their lives in ways they had never dreamed possible.
Vievee Francis, who is African-American, has a touching poem that deals with this.
“Nigger Pine.”
After the funeral of President Lincoln
Whether he loved us or not –
we draped black ribbon
across our windows and doors.
Our long faces, Lord, how we wailed.
Would he have had us remain,
or sail off to some namesake colony?
No matter; forlorn, we mourned,
even as we recalled the “nigger”
his tongue wagged to the press –
into his wife’s hot ear.
Perhaps our brows would never have met,
Perhaps our visage he disparaged
As much as his misshapen jaw,
Still, he resisted the lies of unwieldy romance
Preferring practical solutions
to peculiar situations
No, he did not proclaim love for us. The old ones say
in some African tribes there is no word
For love—only action, deeds, and duty
may say what the mouth will not.
“Nigger Pine” was the common term for the scrub trees that grew on the blood-engorged battlefields.
I cried after reading this poem. Those last two stanzas moved me deeply. We are all imperfect, but it’s true: Lincoln’s “actions, deeds, and duty” said “what the mouth will not,” and his actions – not his words – made all the difference.
20 Minutes a Day 
I love this post, Len. I’d read about Lincoln’s racism before but never gave it much attention because of his actions. I love the idea, the reality, that sometimes we do the right thing in spite of our beliefs and ideas.
Thanks, Sam. Yes, I loved, too.