A Delicate Matter

BRIAN: Almost 100 years after Thomas Ball’s memorial was created, the nation had another big opportunity to commemorate emancipation. It was the 100 year anniversary of the Civil War, an event that Yale historian David Blight writes about in a new book called American Oracle. I asked David what Civil Rights leaders wanted to see happen for the centennial of Lincoln’s Proclamation.

DAVID BLIGHT: Within only a week or two of President Kennedy’s inauguration January of ’61, Martin Luther King, Junior and his aides, and SCLE, the Southern Christian Leadership Council, began to lobby the White House to issue what they explicitly called a second Emancipation Proclamation.

And by that, they meant an executive order, just as Lincoln had done during the Civil War, outlawing segregation. So in the summer of ’62, while the White House has this appeal from King, which they had no intention of really acting on as an executive order from the President, they did some what hastily plan a special event at the Lincoln Memorial to commemorate emancipation.

Now initially, it was even announced that Kennedy himself would be the speaker. The keynote speaker would be the President. But because the Civil Rights Movement was so sensitive, within about two weeks of the event, Kennedy announced, or the White House announced, that Kennedy, because of a scheduling problem, was not going to be able to appear.

And the truth is he went instead to attend the America’s Cup Yacht Race off Nantucket. In his stead, somewhat hastily, the keynote speaker was announced as Adlai Stevenson. Now Adlai Stevenson was at that point the US Secretary to the United Nations, or the Ambassador to the United Nations. Now the event came off fine. But the speech that Stevens actually gave, the speech is essentially a Cold War speech to the Third World about how the United States, the United America, out of its divisive past was now your beacon.

And very little was said at this commemoration about the Emancipation Proclamation itself, how it came about, what it actually did, or for that matter the process of emancipation during the Civil War. And keep in mind, the Civil Rights Movement is out there roiling across the landscape of the South at the very time they had this commemoration.

This event was treated in the black press and black newspapers like the Chicago Defender, and Pittsburgh Courier, and others as a missed opportunity, to say the least.

BRIAN: David Blight is a professor of history at Yale University. His book about the centennial is called American Oracle, The Civil War in the Civil Rights Era.

So as we heard, Civil Rights leaders were pretty disappointed with that official Centennial Commemoration of emancipation. And I think you could understand why. A year later, Martin Luther King stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, and he commemorated emancipation in a very different way.

MARTIN LUTHER KING: I have a dream that one day, every valley shall be exalted.

BRIAN: A lot of people don’t realize it, but the famous “Dream” part of the speech was ad-libbed and comes at the very end. The majority of the speech was actually about emancipation.

MARTIN LUTHER KING: This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity. But 100 years later, the Negro still is not free.

BRIAN: It’s time for a short break. When we come back, why Lincoln refused to end slavery in loyal states, like Maryland and Kentucky.

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