How Did Lincoln Influence The Civil Rights Movement

Although Abraham Lincoln is now considered to be one of the greatest presidents of all time, he never received anything near that level of adoration throughout his life. A majority of the country disapproved of his election as president, and the south seceded from the country. Even in the north, where anti-slavery sentiments were common, he still received little support. However, this criticism turned into love soon after his assassination. In the years directly following his death, there was nothing but kind words for the late president. After nearly a hundred years, Lincoln once again became the subject of severe criticism during the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s. Surprisingly, this criticism did not come from white supremacists. Instead, it came from leaders within the pro-black community, such as Malcolm X and Lerone Bennett Jr. After one hundred years of little progress in terms of black rights, activists began to blame Lincoln for not doing enough, just as the abolitionists had during their time. However, the goals of those that criticized Lincoln during the Civil Rights movement differed greatly from the goals of groups during his own lifetime. Although the south made the biggest statement by seceding …show more content…
The initial spark for the movement came from Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, stating that separate, segregated facilities were inherently unequal. Other important events such as Sarah Keys v. Carolina Coach Company, Rosa Parks refusal to give up her seat, and the brutal murder of Emmett Till in 1955 increased the support for the movement. During this time period, Martin Luther King Jr. rose to prominence starting with the boycott of Montgomery’s buses. In 1957, it seemed like the movement had achieved many of its goals with the introduction of the Civil Rights act of 1957. However, the work of the Civil Rights movement was nowhere near