ANDERSON, Ind. — This is the fourth in a series of articles concerning various facts and opinions about black history, how that history affects black leadership today, and what I think are the implications for black leadership in the future. It’s a much weightier subject than I thought.

For example, I wrote last week about Abraham Lincoln and my feelings that he might have been morally opposed to slavery, but that he signed the Emancipation Proclamation for practical, political and military reasons. Now, here is the problem.

All my life, mainly as a result of schooling from kindergarten through college, I put Abraham Lincoln on a pedestal. You know, the Great Emancipator. Honest Abe. Robin Hood. Superman.  Batman, and those heroes.

After all, in the 1960s, didn’t Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. stand at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial when he delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech to the world? The only thing I have ever regretted about the historic event is that I was not there, weeping and cheering like all the rest.

Then, in the process of writing these articles, I did something we are not supposed to do. It’s something called research. I looked a little deeper into “Honest Abe.” Well, I came across a passage from the great contemporary historian Lerone Bennett Jr.

A thoughtful scholar, he is best known for his classic book on black history, Before the Mayflower. But the passage I read came from another of his many history books — “Forced Into Glory: Abraham Lincoln’s White Dream.”

Bennett’s facts are indisputable, and well known to every serious historian. The only controversy about it is that it paints quite a different picture of Lincoln than what we are taught in school.

First, Bennett asserts that Lincoln, like many in his era, thought blacks were inherently inferior to whites.

Second, although he did, in fact, sign the Emancipation Proclamation, he did so reluctantly.

Third, he firmly believed that the best thing for America to do with her 4,000,000 black slaves was send them all back to Africa. He believed that “deporting blacks and creating an all-white country was a moral imperative.”

Historical records show that Lincoln said: “Let us be brought to believe it is morally right and, at the same time, favorable to, or, at least, not against, our interest, to transfer the African to his native clime, and we shall find a way to do it, however great the task may be.”€

Bennett also notes: “One reads everywhere or almost everywhere that Lincoln had to talk like a racist because of the racist atmosphere of the time. This apology overlooks the relatively large number of white politicians who acted and voted for freedom despite racism.”

The Emancipation Proclamation did not free a single slave. It took the 13th and 14th constitutional amendments to accomplish that, along with incredible pressure from white politicians and growing numbers of black and white citizens to at last bring human slavery to an end.

This point illuminates a larger issue. American history is shrouded in myth. The credit for some of our greatest human accomplishments is often given to the wrong person or group. And, conversely, the blame for some of our country’s greatest failures is laid at the feet of the innocent.

Anyway, by the end of the Civil War, in 1865, over 200,000 black men had served in the Union army, fighting for freedom for all African-Americans. Over 600,000 soldiers on both sides lay dead. And huge portions of the South lay in ruins.

For African Americans, what followed was a brief period of freedom and prosperity known as the Reconstruction Era. The era lasted approximately 12 years, and saw thousands of Southern blacks become successful elected officials, businessmen, preachers, farmers, skilled tradesmen, educators, housewives, and so forth.

As to education, because of the great passion of newly freed African-Americans to learn to read, write, and compute, America’s system of public education was born. After all, illiteracy was not a problem peculiar to blacks alone. The shoe fit millions of White southerners as well.

Looked at another way, the end of slavery marked the beginning of profound changes in the contours of American society. These changes would not come easily and, in many ways, are still emerging. More bluntly stated, following the Reconstruction Era, there would be blood.

Have a nice day.

Primus Mootry is an Anderson resident. His column is published each Wednesday.