ABSTRACT
Conjure up in your mind the bearded figure of Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, “Honest Abe” from Kentucky, Commander in Chief during the Civil War and author of one of the most important documents in American history — the Emancipation Proclamation. Consider these words of the man often referred to as the “Great Emancipator” on the topic of race relations:
I have no purpose to introduce political and social equality between the white and black races. There is a physical difference between the two, which in my judgment will probably forever forbid their living together upon the footing of perfect equality, and inasmuch as it becomes a necessity that there must be a difference, I … am in favor of the race to which I belong, having the superior position. I have never said anything to the contrary. (Lincoln, 1989,
