Was Lincoln a philanthropist and "(a) great friend of human liberty and the Negro (etc.)"? In contrast with Grimke, I say yes, yes, and yes!
Yes, I speak with eight-score years of hindsight. Plus, my standpoint is like Grimke's and thousands of freed persons. While savoring their historic freedom, they were begrudged it by many Whites who saw them as the undeserved reason for their war sorrows -- loved ones' deaths and maiming in battles, and other losses by vicissitudes of war.
Likewise, growing up after World War 2, I tasted the same hatred, living in a nation that overwhelmingly saw in me and my family the personification of a recent enemy.
Lincoln's preliminary Emancipation Proclamation was generously bought with the nation's worst battlefield of blood atop two years of bleeding before Antietam. The final Proclamation presaged the grudging permission of the nation to allow the African American man to shed his blood to help purchase his own liberty. Lincoln did as much as he could, as quickly, as the northern fraction of the nation allowed...and Grimke knew what reward Lincoln had received.
In December 1941 my eldest uncle enlisted to prove he was a loyal American (even as the eldest son, he was exempt from service). He was "allowed" to be trained as a medic (other Nisei were denied enlistment, kicked out, or put into service companies) until 1943, when the segregated 442nd Regimental Combat Team was authorized, modeled after the U.S. Colored Troops. Like many of the USCT's, his younger brother volunteered out of the Jerome, Arkansas, concentration camp (our version of a plantation). Yeah, 80 years later and the army still didn't trust non-Whites born in the USA. (Tom served in France and was awarded the Purple Heart; Goro entered the Military Intelligence Service, just in time to participate in the Battle for Manila. Both were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal.)
(b) I compare the new Lincoln sculpture to the Memorial of marble in Washington, where I grew up, and the bronze statue in front of City Hall, San Francisco, where I live now (it's been there for 97 years, twice as long as moi). All show him seated and thoughtful. Artistically, it compares with the US Treasury rolling out another sheet of five dollar bills.
I concur that if there's to be another statue of Lincoln, this one's contribution is minimal. Couldn't an original theme be commemorated? Perhaps, the Lincolns visiting a contraband camp, appreciating each other.
Like Cato the Elder, tho, I would go out of my way to view this Lincoln statue in DC, than visit a representation of REL, anywhere, unless it was to witness its being beaten into plowshares.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I think much of your personal history would resonate with Grimke. He was clearly interpreting Lincoln's legacy at precarious and dangerous moment for African Americans in this country.
Thank you, too! Your attribution is received for what my forbears persevered through. As had Grimke and Tubman and Douglass, who led navigating treacherous currents in flimsy boats.
My personal mentor, Mike Masaoka, was the Japanese American Citizens League's wartime traveling troubleshooter and interface with the feds. He persuaded the Army to authorize the 442nd; postwar, he argued for and won signal federal legislation (some restorative, some pre-civil rights) as JACL's lobbyist. For us he was Tubman, Grimke, and Douglass, combined. Mike and his 4 brothers all fought in the 442nd, too.
Yet he was controversial among us. He loudly dissed angry Nisei who protested concentration camps, and helped the Army make our internal self-exile go smoothly. In 1950s after-hours Washington he tried to persuade Earl Warren, when Chief Justice, to apologize for evicting us when he was California's governor. (Our CA attorney general apologized last week for his office's cooperating with Warren 8 decades ago.)
When asked why he cooperated with our exile by FDR, Masaoka said, simply: "They had guns."
Thanks to groundwork Mike laid, but also to manipulative racists who played us as "the good minority" against 1960s civil rights marchers, we made up our losses and even leapfrogged African Americans, notably earning a symbolic reparations gesture from, of all people, Ronald Reagan.
I am in full agreement with you on this one. Raise a statue, if you must (I'm beginning to be anti-monument period if it focuses on a person and not an event), to Douglass or heroes heretofore unknown who should be exalted.
Was Lincoln a philanthropist and "(a) great friend of human liberty and the Negro (etc.)"? In contrast with Grimke, I say yes, yes, and yes!
Yes, I speak with eight-score years of hindsight. Plus, my standpoint is like Grimke's and thousands of freed persons. While savoring their historic freedom, they were begrudged it by many Whites who saw them as the undeserved reason for their war sorrows -- loved ones' deaths and maiming in battles, and other losses by vicissitudes of war.
Likewise, growing up after World War 2, I tasted the same hatred, living in a nation that overwhelmingly saw in me and my family the personification of a recent enemy.
Lincoln's preliminary Emancipation Proclamation was generously bought with the nation's worst battlefield of blood atop two years of bleeding before Antietam. The final Proclamation presaged the grudging permission of the nation to allow the African American man to shed his blood to help purchase his own liberty. Lincoln did as much as he could, as quickly, as the northern fraction of the nation allowed...and Grimke knew what reward Lincoln had received.
In December 1941 my eldest uncle enlisted to prove he was a loyal American (even as the eldest son, he was exempt from service). He was "allowed" to be trained as a medic (other Nisei were denied enlistment, kicked out, or put into service companies) until 1943, when the segregated 442nd Regimental Combat Team was authorized, modeled after the U.S. Colored Troops. Like many of the USCT's, his younger brother volunteered out of the Jerome, Arkansas, concentration camp (our version of a plantation). Yeah, 80 years later and the army still didn't trust non-Whites born in the USA. (Tom served in France and was awarded the Purple Heart; Goro entered the Military Intelligence Service, just in time to participate in the Battle for Manila. Both were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal.)
(b) I compare the new Lincoln sculpture to the Memorial of marble in Washington, where I grew up, and the bronze statue in front of City Hall, San Francisco, where I live now (it's been there for 97 years, twice as long as moi). All show him seated and thoughtful. Artistically, it compares with the US Treasury rolling out another sheet of five dollar bills.
I concur that if there's to be another statue of Lincoln, this one's contribution is minimal. Couldn't an original theme be commemorated? Perhaps, the Lincolns visiting a contraband camp, appreciating each other.
Like Cato the Elder, tho, I would go out of my way to view this Lincoln statue in DC, than visit a representation of REL, anywhere, unless it was to witness its being beaten into plowshares.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I think much of your personal history would resonate with Grimke. He was clearly interpreting Lincoln's legacy at precarious and dangerous moment for African Americans in this country.
Thank you, too! Your attribution is received for what my forbears persevered through. As had Grimke and Tubman and Douglass, who led navigating treacherous currents in flimsy boats.
Artistic BULLETIN. The Smithsonian Institution's magazine just published an article on Philadelphia's competition for its proposed statue of Harriet Tubman outside its City Hall. Five semifinalists range from ordinary to highly inspirational. Stylistic comparisons to the Grimke statue are begged. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/these-are-the-semi-finalists-for-a-harriet-tubman-sculpture-at-philadelphia-city-hall-180982694/?utm_source=smithsoniandaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=editorial&spMailingID=48591912&spUserID=ODQyMTI2NTAzNTA5S0&spJobID=2521478442&spReportId=MjUyMTQ3ODQ0MgS2. The magazine says the Philadelphia museum invites public voting until 9/1.
My personal mentor, Mike Masaoka, was the Japanese American Citizens League's wartime traveling troubleshooter and interface with the feds. He persuaded the Army to authorize the 442nd; postwar, he argued for and won signal federal legislation (some restorative, some pre-civil rights) as JACL's lobbyist. For us he was Tubman, Grimke, and Douglass, combined. Mike and his 4 brothers all fought in the 442nd, too.
Yet he was controversial among us. He loudly dissed angry Nisei who protested concentration camps, and helped the Army make our internal self-exile go smoothly. In 1950s after-hours Washington he tried to persuade Earl Warren, when Chief Justice, to apologize for evicting us when he was California's governor. (Our CA attorney general apologized last week for his office's cooperating with Warren 8 decades ago.)
When asked why he cooperated with our exile by FDR, Masaoka said, simply: "They had guns."
Thanks to groundwork Mike laid, but also to manipulative racists who played us as "the good minority" against 1960s civil rights marchers, we made up our losses and even leapfrogged African Americans, notably earning a symbolic reparations gesture from, of all people, Ronald Reagan.
I am in full agreement with you on this one. Raise a statue, if you must (I'm beginning to be anti-monument period if it focuses on a person and not an event), to Douglass or heroes heretofore unknown who should be exalted.
No.
Coming through loud and clear. :-)