Name: Alice Lam
Student no: 492420642
Date: 2005/6/8
English composition (minor)
Title: the Political theory of Racial Integration between Lincoln and JFK

Both Lincoln and JFK are the ex-presidents of the United States of America. And they have been assassinated; they contributed their lives setting the African-Americans free from slavery and discrimination.

First in 19th Century Lincoln had fight for the civil rights of the African-Americans. When he entered the congress in 1846, he opposed to lengthen the slavery. He believed that the Declaration of Independence's statement that "all men are created equal" could also apply to the black slaves. And he supported colonization but he barred slavery to all the territories. He had never considered that black people were looked down because they live as the colonizers; and the discrimination between black and white still existed. In 1860, he became president by the political program against gathering slaves. But in 1861, the civil war between the Northern Americans and Southern Americans burst out. At that time there were many immigrants from Europe and China to the California; so different cultures mixed together. But the Southern Americans were still engaged in the agriculture to plough the life primarily and they needed the black slaves to make the labor force. So they were supporting the slavery and opposed Lincoln’s bill intensely. Because the South Americans did not agree with the new system, so Lincoln emphasized this subject, ‘the declaration must defend the national dignity, but abolishes the slavery.’ when the civil war burst out. In 1863, although the north armed force won the civil war; many soldiers died in Gettysburg War. On November 19 of 1863, at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery ; Lincoln gave a speech in Gettysburg, what he was saying was not to congratulate upon the win of the war but a eulogy which touched every American citizen deeply in the heart. He praised the ones who sacrifice themselves in that war, and said that what they need to do was to finish their unfulfilled wish; he used a circumlocutory way to counsel all the citizens to live for freedom and equality. From the Gettysburg Address, ‘under God, we shall have a new birth of freedom; and that government of the people, by the people, and for the people’. The Gettysburg Address was presented At last the North armed force won the battle, and finally the African-Americans were free from the slavery in 1865.

And in the 20th Century, although the slavery has been abolished, there the discrimination still existed in the USA society at that time; the African Americans were considered as the second-class citizens. Similar to Lincoln fighting against the slavery, JFK devotes to relieves American's racial discrimination when he was in office president the period, during that time was the Cuban Missile Crisis and the cold war. It was the hard and troubled times of JFK: not only the problems inside the nation and between the countries. JFK had made him most famous speech, Inaugural Address on the date he swore as the 35th President. Different from the tact of Lincoln in Gettysburg Address, JFK showed his ambition and called upon the Americans and the world citizens to fight for freedom and their lives. As it was said in that address, ‘and so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.’ This address helps the African-Americans for the civil rights and they can live in the society freely without discrimination. Before the African Americans are treated as common American citizens, in 1954 the Southern whites still kept the racial segregation. That means they remained the practice of segregation in the public places such as on buses, in restaurants, movie theaters etc. And the Afriacan-Americans protested against for their civil rights, this act irritated the Southern whites and made JFK more difficult to carry out the racial integration . Although it still took a long period of time to campaign this movement, it finally succeeds after the president’s death.

Both of these ex-presidents fight for the civil rights for the African American, but I think that was a progress. During the movement of breaking the discrimination between black and white; without Lincoln’s effort in the 18th Century and he ended the slavery and made some of the people realized that there should not be differentiation among the people in the world. But Lincoln didn’t aware that he had remained the problem of racial discrimination. In 1950’s, JFK made his effort to break the discrimination to reform the wrong concept of discrimination.



References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/
http://www.lforums.com/index.htm
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