October 11, 2010
“ Almost from the very beginning of the Civil War, the federal government had to start making policy and they said, ‘Well, we’re going to treat these people as free. We’re not going to send them back into the slave holding regions. And the Army opened itself up to the enlistment of black men. And by the end of the Civil War, 200,000 black men have served in the Union Army and Navy. And envisioning blacks as soldiers is a very, very different idea of their future role in American society. It’s the black soldiers and their role which really begins as the stimulus in Lincoln’s change [with regard to] racial attitudes and attitudes towards America as an inter-racial society in the last two years of his life.

Historian Eric Foner, talking about the importance of African-American soldiers joining the Union Army and then changing Abraham Lincoln’s thoughts on slavery, during an interview with Terry Gross, October 11, 2010. (via nprfreshair)

Imagine that. Now we just need to replace the word “black” with “gay” and change a few more minds. 

(via aatombomb)

When I was in 11th grade (1992-1993), my AP American History teacher showed us Glory - 1989 film about a black civil war regiment, starring Denzel, Morgan Freeman and… Matthew Broderick— and assigned us essays about the integration of the American military during the 1940s. We had to look up (on microfiche! or in huge bound books!) the editorials and front page stories and the arguments for and against in the New York Times and Life Magazine and whatnot. And then we wrote papers about the arguments. The whole point was for us to see that the debate over Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell included virtually identical arguments against integration as did the debate over racial desegregation of the military.

(that was my favorite class in high school.)

(via alicetiara)

Comments (View)
blog comments powered by Disqus