Lincoln and Black Freedom: A Study in Presidential Leadership

Reveals the political savvy and egalitarian convictions behind Lincoln's racial policies

In the midst of America's civil rights movement, historians questioned the widely-held belief that Abraham Lincoln was the "Great Emancipator." They pictured him as a white supremacist moved by political expediency to issue the Emacipation Proclamation. In Lincoln and Black Freedom LaWanda Cox, a leading Reconstruction historian, argues that Lincoln was a consistent friend of African-American freedom but...