At Global Black History we look at today February 21st as President’s Day in America where we celebrate the men whose policies have influenced us greatly.
We celebrate of course Abe Lincoln who realized that ‘a nation divided against itself cannot stand’ and emancipated the slaves by abolishing slavery. This was very brave on his part especially because the southern states did not recognize that black and whites were in fact equal. This issue still plagues the United States today more than a hundred and forty year later.
Teddy Roosevelt the first President to invite a black man Booker T. Washington to the White House for dinner. This was huge because well it was 1901 need I say more. Prior to this the only participation that blacks had with the house that they had helped to build was to walk in the halls as slaves and servants.
John Fitzgerald Kennedy started the conversation about civil right and many believe that it was his stance on civil rights that led to his assassination. During his presidency there was an exodus of white southern democrats from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party because they detested the direction Kennedy was taking the party.
JFK’s successor Lyndon Johnson a son of the South signed that 1964 Civil Rights Legislation this was very brave because the South detested any hint of equality among the races. They advocated for “state rights” which code was for let the south keep oppressing the blacks and let us do what we want. He was the first President to appoint a black person to a cabinet position Robert C. Weaver head of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in 1966 and the first to appoint a black Supreme Court justice Thurgood Marshall in 1967.
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