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PEOPLE: Black History Month 2023 recognizes U.S. President: Promoted freedom, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness

AGN.News Team

February 10, 2023

WASHINGTON (AGN.News) – Black History Month 2023 celebrates the efforts of Presidents of the United States who personally advanced the civil rights of African Americans.

Those positive efforts by U.S. presidents helped to advance the civil rights, human rights, a better life, liberty, freedom, and the pursuit of happiness for all Americans.

Abraham Lincoln and Black History

Abraham Lincoln’s Peoria speech was made in Peoria, Illinois on October 16, 1854. The speech, with its specific arguments against slavery, was an important step in Abraham Lincoln’s political ascension.

This three-hour speech that evening on the lawn of the Peoria County Courthouse, transcribed after the fact by Lincoln himself, presented thorough moral, legal, economic, and historical (citing the Founding Fathers) arguments against slavery.

Lincoln made very clear that the institution of slavery and oppression had to end when he said:

“Little by little, but steadily as man’s march to the grave, we have been giving up the old for the new faith. Nearly eighty years ago we began by declaring that all men are created equal; but now from that beginning we have run down to the other declaration, that for some men to enslave others is a ‘sacred right of self-government.’ These principles cannot stand together. They are as opposite as God and Mammon; and whoever holds to the one must despise the other.”

When Lincoln became President of the United States, Lincoln took a firm stand against slavery and those who promoted it. He knew African Americans had to be freed from slavery for the good of the nation.

Abraham Lincoln took action!

Lincoln led the Union through the American Civil War to defend the nation as a constitutional union and succeeded in abolishing slavery, bolstering the federal government, and modernizing the U.S. economy.

Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, officially Proclamation 95, which was a presidential proclamation and executive order issued on January 1, 1863, during the Civil War. The Proclamation changed the legal status of more than 3.5 million enslaved African Americans in the secessionist Confederate states from enslaved to free.

Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation

On September 22, 1862, Abraham Lincoln issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. It went into effect on January 1, 1863. This executive Emancipation Proclamation, which declared the slaves in the states “in rebellion” against the United States to be free.

The Emancipation Proclamation also directed the Army and Navy to “recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons” and to receive them “into the armed service of the United States.”

Texas, Juneteenth, and Black History

Texas, as the most remote state of the former Confederacy, had seen an expansion of slavery and had a low presence of Union troops as the American Civil War ended; thus, enforcement there had been slow and inconsistent prior to Granger’s order.

Although the Emancipation Proclamation declared an end to slavery in the Confederate States, it did not end slavery in states that remained in the Union. Those slaves were freed with the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which abolished chattel slavery nationwide on December 6, 1865.

Juneteenth and Black History

President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, freeing the slaves in Texas and all the rebellious parts of Southern secessionist states of the Confederacy. Enforcement of the Proclamation generally relied upon the advance of Union troops.

The general order was issued by Union General Gordon Granger on June 19, 1865, upon arriving at Galveston, Texas, at the end of the American Civil War and two-and-a-half years after the original issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation.

General Order No. 3 was an American legal decree issued in 1865 enforcing the Emancipation Proclamation to the residents of the U.S. state of Texas and freed all remaining slaves in the state.

The Order, and Granger’s enforcement of it, is the central event commemorated by the holiday of Juneteenth, which originally celebrated the end of slavery in Texas.

Deriving its name from combining “June” and “nineteenth”, it is celebrated on the anniversary of General Order No. 3, issued by Major General Gordon Granger on June 19, 1865, proclaiming freedom for slaves in Texas.

African Americans have celebrated Juneteenth in various communities since June 19, 1865. Black families have always saw the value of Juneteenth.

President Joe Biden took action!

Thanks to the 46th President of the United States, Joe Biden, who was also the 47th vice president, who signed the bill, passed by Congress, which created the Juneteenth National Independence Day holiday.

The holiday is considered the “longest-running African-American holiday” and has been called “America’s second Independence Day”. You can learn more about Juneteenth by going here.

As of June 19, 2021, Juneteenth is now a federal holiday in the United States commemorating the emancipation of enslaved African Americans. Juneteenth is a national holiday to be celebrated every year from now on into eternity.

Lincoln’s Legacy defined by unity

President Abraham Lincoln gave the Gettysburg Address where he declared, “…that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

On April 14, 1865, just five days after the war’s end at Appomattox, Lincoln was attending a play at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C., with his wife, Mary, when he was fatally shot by Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth, dying in the early morning hours of April 15, 1865.

Lincoln is remembered as a martyr and a national hero for his wartime leadership and for his efforts to preserve the Union and abolish slavery. Lincoln is often ranked in both popular and scholarly polls as the greatest president in American history.

Woodrow Wilson and Black History

By contrast, Wilson grew up in the American South, mainly in Augusta, Georgia, during the Civil War and Reconstruction and has been known as a devout racist. His grandfather James Wilson, who wanted slavery to end, published a pro-tariff and anti-slavery newspaper, The Western Herald and Gazette.

Woodrow Wilson ran for president in 1912 and defeated incumbent Republican William Howard Taft and third-party nominee Theodore Roosevelt to easily win the 1912 United States presidential election, becoming the first Southerner to do so since Zachary Taylor won 1848.

Woodrow Wilson’s racist policies

During his first year as president, Wilson went to work undoing any gains African Americans had made since the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment in 1865. He authorized the widespread imposition of segregation inside the federal bureaucracy.

Wilson was one of only two U.S. presidents to be a citizen of the Confederate States of America, the other being John Tyler. Wilson’s family identified with the Southern United States and were staunch supporters of the Confederacy during the American Civil War.

Wilson personally opposed women’s suffrage or the women’s right to vote, in 1911 because he believed women lacked the public experience needed to be good voters.

Woodrow Wilson admired segregationists

When Wilson was at Princeton, Wilson actively dissuaded the admission of African Americans as students.

Several historians have spotlighted consistent examples in the public record of Wilson’s overtly racist policies and the inclusion of segregationists in his Cabinet.

Other sources say Wilson defended segregation as “a rational, scientific policy” in private and describe him as a man who “loved to tell racist jokes about Black Americans.”

President William Howard Taft was met with disdain and outrage from Republicans of both races for appointing thirty-one Black officeholders, a record low for a Republican president. Upon taking office, Wilson fired all but two of the seventeen Black supervisors in the federal bureaucracy appointed by Taft.

Woodrow Wilson promoted racism

By the end of 1913, many departments, including the Navy, Treasury, and Post Office, had segregated work spaces, restrooms, and cafeterias. Many agencies used segregation as a pretext to adopt a whites-only employment policy, claiming they lacked facilities for Black workers.

In these instances, African Americans employed prior to the Wilson administration were either offered early retirement, transferred, or simply fired.

Racial discrimination in federal hiring increased further when after 1914, the United States Civil Service Commission instituted a new policy requiring job applicants to submit a personal photo with their application. That way they could eliminate tax-paying Black people from government jobs.

Government sponsored racism in jobs

In 1919, Black veterans returning home to D.C. after the war were shocked to discover Jim Crow laws had set in, many could not go back to the jobs they held prior to the war or even enter the same building they used to work in due to the color of their skin.

Booker T. Washington described the situation: “I had never seen the colored people so discouraged and bitter as they are at the present time.”

Wilson sponsored racism in military

During Wilson’s first term, the Army and Navy refused to commission new Black officers. Black officers already serving experienced increased discrimination and were often forced out or discharged on dubious grounds.

Wilson’s Legacy stained by racism

Wilson appointed a devout racist as Navy Secretary. He immediately implemented racist policies. Ships, training facilities, restrooms, and cafeterias all became segregated.

Due to Wilson’s racist belief and actions, the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton was named for Wilson until Princeton’s Board of Trustees voted to remove Wilson’s name in 2020 because of his racist and divisive views.

Wilson’s racist actions were inconsistent with the honor given him. So the Woodrow Wilson Foundation which was an educational non-profit created in 1921 to honor Wilson’s legacy, for the “perpetuation of Wilson’s ideals” via periodic grants, disbanded and was terminated in 1993.

Lincoln promoted unity within America

Thanks to presidents like Abraham Lincoln and many others – we have a future where the legacy of liberty and freedom reigns. A future where millions of Americans celebrate Black History Month all across the United States and beyond.

Americans want love and unity and not chaos. They want healing and not heroics. Americans want serenity and not surgery. Americans wants normalcy and not revolution. Americans want unity and not chaos. Abraham Lincoln stressed being UNITED as in the – UNITED States.

President Abraham Lincoln promoted life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for all Americans.

#GoldOverBlack

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STOP THE SPREAD! GET VACCINATED!

VACCINES ARE AVAILABLE FOR FREE!

Everyone is being urged by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC.gov) to get vaccinated, wear masks, practice social distancing, and wash hands as a way to cut down on the transmission rate.

For more information on local responses to the novel coronavirus also called … COVID-19, contact your local healthcare provider, visit coronavirus.gov or visit cdc.gov for the United States response to the coronavirus.

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PEOPLE: Black History Month 2023 recognizes U.S. President: Promoted freedom, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness

AGN.News Team

February 10, 2023

WASHINGTON (AGN.News) – Black History Month 2023 celebrates the efforts of Presidents of the United States who personally advanced the civil rights of African Americans.

Those positive efforts by U.S. presidents helped to advance the civil rights, human rights, a better life, liberty, freedom, and the pursuit of happiness for all Americans.

Abraham Lincoln and Black History

Abraham Lincoln’s Peoria speech was made in Peoria, Illinois on October 16, 1854. The speech, with its specific arguments against slavery, was an important step in Abraham Lincoln’s political ascension.

This three-hour speech that evening on the lawn of the Peoria County Courthouse, transcribed after the fact by Lincoln himself, presented thorough moral, legal, economic, and historical (citing the Founding Fathers) arguments against slavery.

Lincoln made very clear that the institution of slavery and oppression had to end when he said:

When Lincoln became President of the United States, Lincoln took a firm stand against slavery and those who promoted it. He knew African Americans had to be freed from slavery for the good of the nation.

Abraham Lincoln took action!

Lincoln led the Union through the American Civil War to defend the nation as a constitutional union and succeeded in abolishing slavery, bolstering the federal government, and modernizing the U.S. economy.

Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation

On September 22, 1862, Abraham Lincoln issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. It went into effect on January 1, 1863. This executive Emancipation Proclamation, which declared the slaves in the states “in rebellion” against the United States to be free.

The Emancipation Proclamation also directed the Army and Navy to “recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons” and to receive them “into the armed service of the United States.”

Texas, Juneteenth, and Black History

Texas, as the most remote state of the former Confederacy, had seen an expansion of slavery and had a low presence of Union troops as the American Civil War ended; thus, enforcement there had been slow and inconsistent prior to Granger’s order.

Juneteenth and Black History

President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, freeing the slaves in Texas and all the rebellious parts of Southern secessionist states of the Confederacy. Enforcement of the Proclamation generally relied upon the advance of Union troops.

The general order was issued by Union General Gordon Granger on June 19, 1865, upon arriving at Galveston, Texas, at the end of the American Civil War and two-and-a-half years after the original issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation.

General Order No. 3 was an American legal decree issued in 1865 enforcing the Emancipation Proclamation to the residents of the U.S. state of Texas and freed all remaining slaves in the state.

The Order, and Granger’s enforcement of it, is the central event commemorated by the holiday of Juneteenth, which originally celebrated the end of slavery in Texas.

Deriving its name from combining “June” and “nineteenth”, it is celebrated on the anniversary of General Order No. 3, issued by Major General Gordon Granger on June 19, 1865, proclaiming freedom for slaves in Texas.

African Americans have celebrated Juneteenth in various communities since June 19, 1865. Black families have always saw the value of Juneteenth.

President Joe Biden took action!

Thanks to the 46th President of the United States, Joe Biden, who was also the 47th vice president, who signed the bill, passed by Congress, which created the Juneteenth National Independence Day holiday.

The holiday is considered the “longest-running African-American holiday” and has been called “America’s second Independence Day”. You can learn more about Juneteenth by going here.

As of June 19, 2021, Juneteenth is now a federal holiday in the United States commemorating the emancipation of enslaved African Americans. Juneteenth is a national holiday to be celebrated every year from now on into eternity.

Lincoln’s Legacy defined by unity

President Abraham Lincoln gave the Gettysburg Address where he declared, “…that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

On April 14, 1865, just five days after the war’s end at Appomattox, Lincoln was attending a play at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C., with his wife, Mary, when he was fatally shot by Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth, dying in the early morning hours of April 15, 1865.

Lincoln is remembered as a martyr and a national hero for his wartime leadership and for his efforts to preserve the Union and abolish slavery. Lincoln is often ranked in both popular and scholarly polls as the greatest president in American history.

Woodrow Wilson and Black History

By contrast, Wilson grew up in the American South, mainly in Augusta, Georgia, during the Civil War and Reconstruction and has been known as a devout racist. His grandfather James Wilson, who wanted slavery to end, published a pro-tariff and anti-slavery newspaper, The Western Herald and Gazette.

Woodrow Wilson ran for president in 1912 and defeated incumbent Republican William Howard Taft and third-party nominee Theodore Roosevelt to easily win the 1912 United States presidential election, becoming the first Southerner to do so since Zachary Taylor won 1848.

Woodrow Wilson’s racist policies

During his first year as president, Wilson went to work undoing any gains African Americans had made since the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment in 1865. He authorized the widespread imposition of segregation inside the federal bureaucracy.

Wilson was one of only two U.S. presidents to be a citizen of the Confederate States of America, the other being John Tyler. Wilson’s family identified with the Southern United States and were staunch supporters of the Confederacy during the American Civil War.

Wilson personally opposed women’s suffrage or the women’s right to vote, in 1911 because he believed women lacked the public experience needed to be good voters.

Woodrow Wilson admired segregationists

When Wilson was at Princeton, Wilson actively dissuaded the admission of African Americans as students.

Several historians have spotlighted consistent examples in the public record of Wilson’s overtly racist policies and the inclusion of segregationists in his Cabinet.

Other sources say Wilson defended segregation as “a rational, scientific policy” in private and describe him as a man who “loved to tell racist jokes about Black Americans.”

Woodrow Wilson promoted racism

By the end of 1913, many departments, including the Navy, Treasury, and Post Office, had segregated work spaces, restrooms, and cafeterias. Many agencies used segregation as a pretext to adopt a whites-only employment policy, claiming they lacked facilities for Black workers.

In these instances, African Americans employed prior to the Wilson administration were either offered early retirement, transferred, or simply fired.

Racial discrimination in federal hiring increased further when after 1914, the United States Civil Service Commission instituted a new policy requiring job applicants to submit a personal photo with their application. That way they could eliminate tax-paying Black people from government jobs.

Government sponsored racism in jobs

In 1919, Black veterans returning home to D.C. after the war were shocked to discover Jim Crow laws had set in, many could not go back to the jobs they held prior to the war or even enter the same building they used to work in due to the color of their skin.

Booker T. Washington described the situation: “I had never seen the colored people so discouraged and bitter as they are at the present time.”

Wilson sponsored racism in military

During Wilson’s first term, the Army and Navy refused to commission new Black officers. Black officers already serving experienced increased discrimination and were often forced out or discharged on dubious grounds.

Wilson’s Legacy stained by racism

Wilson appointed a devout racist as Navy Secretary. He immediately implemented racist policies. Ships, training facilities, restrooms, and cafeterias all became segregated.

Due to Wilson’s racist belief and actions, the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton was named for Wilson until Princeton’s Board of Trustees voted to remove Wilson’s name in 2020 because of his racist and divisive views.

Wilson’s racist actions were inconsistent with the honor given him. So the Woodrow Wilson Foundation which was an educational non-profit created in 1921 to honor Wilson’s legacy, for the “perpetuation of Wilson’s ideals” via periodic grants, disbanded and was terminated in 1993.

Lincoln promoted unity within America

Thanks to presidents like Abraham Lincoln and many others – we have a future where the legacy of liberty and freedom reigns. A future where millions of Americans celebrate Black History Month all across the United States and beyond.

Americans want love and unity and not chaos. They want healing and not heroics. Americans want serenity and not surgery. Americans wants normalcy and not revolution. Americans want unity and not chaos. Abraham Lincoln stressed being UNITED as in the – UNITED States.

President Abraham Lincoln promoted life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for all Americans.

#GoldOverBlack

COVID-19 PREVENTION

STOP THE SPREAD! GET VACCINATED!

VACCINES ARE AVAILABLE FOR FREE!

Everyone is being urged by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC.gov) to get vaccinated, wear masks, practice social distancing, and wash hands as a way to cut down on the transmission rate.

For more information on local responses to the novel coronavirus also called … COVID-19, contact your local healthcare provider, visit coronavirus.gov or visit cdc.gov for the United States response to the coronavirus.

News you can use! Enjoy the best of news from your community by Alphabet Global News.

ALPHABET GLOBAL NEWS

Reliable. Trusted. Local. News.

On Mobile … Fast!

Written by

AGN.News Team

AlphabetGlobalNews.com

AGN News is compiled from submissions by contributors or other sources. We are not responsible for information found on external links. Those clicking on these type of links bear sole responsibility for visiting these sites.

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