OAH Magazine of History
Volume 23, No 1
January 2009

Copyright ©
Organization of American Historians

Teaching Strategy

"To Thee We Sing": Racial Politics and the Lincoln Memorial

Keith Eberly

In 1939, Marian Anderson, world-renowned African American contralto, performed on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to a crowd of 75,000 Americans. The memorial site, however, was selected only after the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) refused to let Anderson sing in its Constitution Hall. D.A.R., a patriotic women's service organization whose members traced their lineage back to the American Revolution, baldly declared that the hall was open to "white artists only" (1). The irony of such a policy for an organization committed to "extending the institutions of American freedom, fostering true patriotism, and securing for mankind all the blessings of liberty" was not lost on civil rights activists working in the D.C. area. The activists decided to make a point to not only D.A.R., but also the entire nation. The memorial became integral to this plan. As NAACP Director Walter White noted, Lincoln "would double the news value" of the event (2). White understood the power of the Lincoln myth. In the decades following the Civil War, a variety of American artists, politicians, and historians constructed a national myth that made Lincoln the embodiment of American ideals—democracy, equality, and freedom (3). In 1939, civil rights activists used Lincoln's status as a preeminent symbol of American nationalism to publicize and invigorate their fight for racial justice.

In the aftermath of numerous civil rights rallies and antiwar demonstrations in Washington, D.C. over the last seventy-five years, the national symbolism of the Lincoln Memorial might seem obvious today. But in 1939 the use of the memorial as part of a mass demonstration was a first. It illustrated the importance of an emerging civil rights tactic. African Americans used the memorial's "sacred" symbolism to highlight the nation's shortcomings and to demand justice for all citizens. As historian Scott Sandage argues, African Americans "exploited the ambiguities of cherished American values to circumvent opposition, unify coalitions, and legitimate black voices in national politics" (4).

At the concert, Anderson herself made clear the political purpose of the event. She sang the patriotic classic "America," but with a twist. Instead of singing "My country tis of thee sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing," Anderson sang "My country tis of thee sweet land of liberty, to thee we sing." For Anderson, and millions of other African Americans, the Lincoln Memorial symbolized the promise, not the reality of freedom. After Anderson's concert, highlighting the hypocrisy of segregation and discrimination in front of the memorial became a common tactic in the fight for civil rights. Time and again African Americans asked the nation to justify the dissonance between the ideals Lincoln represented—democracy, equality, and freedom—and the reality of their lived experience.

Using three memorial events--the 1922 dedication ceremony, the 1963 March on Washington, and the 1995 Million Man March—this teaching strategy examines the enduring relationship between the Lincoln Memorial and American racial politics. Indeed, as Warren Harding indicated in 1922, the memorial belonged to the present and the future as much as it belonged to the past. With its meaning and significance open to interpretation, the memorial became a site where African Americans demanded that the nation live up to Lincoln's ideals.

National Standards

• Era 8: The Great Depression and World War II (1929-1945)
  Standard 3C: Evaluate how minorities organized to gain access to wartime jobs and how they confronted discrimination.
  
• Era 9: Postwar United States (1945 to Early 1970s)
  Standard 4A: Analyze the leadership and ideology of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X in the civil rights movement and evaluate their legacies.
  
• Era 10: Contemporary United States (1968 to the Present)
  Standard 2E: Evaluate the continuing struggle for e pluribus unum amid debates over national vs. group identity, group rights vs. individual rights, multiculturalism, and bilingual education.

Objectives
Students will:

1. Trace the contested nature of American racial politics at the Lincoln Memorial.
   
2. Understand the effectiveness of employing the memorial's democratic symbolism as well as the limits of such a tactic in the fight for racial justice.
   
3. Debate whether the use of symbolic politics at the memorial undermined or strengthened a sense of national unity.
   
4. Identify and analyze primary sources.

Time

• One fifty-minute class period.

Procedures
A. Background reading: As a homework assignment the night before the lesson, assign students three newspaper stories that provide an overview of the 1922 dedication ceremony, the March on Washington, and the Million Man March. These newspaper articles will help students understand the who, what, when, and where of the three memorial events. Teachers should also consider reading a short article by Adam Fairclough, "Civil Rights and the Lincoln Memorial: The Censored Speeches of Robert R. Moton (1922) and John Lewis (1963)," Journal of Negro History 82 (Autumn, 1997): 408-16. .

1. "Lincoln Memorial Presentation Tuesday," New York Times, May 28, 1922. [download]
   
2. "Rights March on Washington Reported Growing," New York Times, August 4, 1963.
   
3. "Debate on March, and Farrakhan, Persists as Black Men Converge on the Capital," New York Times, October 16, 1995.

B. Lecture: Use the Marian Anderson concert to introduce students to the relationship between the Lincoln Memorial and civil rights. Highlight for students the mass quality of the demonstration, Anderson's manipulation of the lyrics, DAR's hypocrisy, and Lincoln's mythic status as the embodiment of democracy, equality, and freedom. Teachers could also build on previous lessons by reminding students of the contrast between Lincoln's idealism—Second Inaugural Address, the Emancipation Proclamation, and/or the Gettysburg Address—and the African American lived-experience of segregation, discrimination, and violence in the decades following the Civil War. (10-15 minutes)

C. After the lecture, show the entire class a clip of Harold Ickes introducing Marian Anderson before her concert at the memorial <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYZoeMKkxkg> and a clip of Anderson's performance <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhd-Q6tBkAQ&feature=related>. Have them answer the following questions while they watch the video clips. (5 minutes)

1. Why did Ickes mention "freedom under the skies?" (The site provided freedom from DAR's discriminatory policy; and as a practical matter it provided the physical space for a mass demonstration.)
   
2. Why did Abraham Lincoln lay down his life?
   
3. Who was the other "great democrat" Ickes identified?
   
4. How did Anderson alter the lyrics of "America?" (Write the correct lyrics on the board and ask students to note how Anderson changed them.)

D. Divide students into nine groups (3 to 4 students per group). Distribute primary source materials. (Information about the location of these materials can be found on pages 55-56.) Each group should answer the guiding questions that correspond with their documents. As students work in their groups, the instructor can mingle among the groups to facilitate discussion and analysis. (10 minutes)

• 1922 Dedication Ceremony
Group 1: Harding's dedication speech [download]

1. According to Harding, what was Lincoln's greatest achievement?
   
2. What was NOT the "supreme chapter in history?"
   
3. What was Lincoln's view of slavery?
   
4. What was the purpose of the memorial?"
   

1. According to the original draft, to what unfinished task did Lincoln give his life?
   
2. To what did Moton compare Lincoln's prophetic warning: "This nation cannot endure half slave and half free?"
   
3. What will prevent the memorial from becoming a "hollow mockery" and "symbol of hypocrisy?"
   
4. What did the national government fail to do at home which it managed to do overseas?
   
5. In the final draft what major changes did Moton make to his speech?
   
6. Why do you think the Lincoln Memorial Commission forced Moton to revise his speech?
   
7. How did this censorship illustrate the symbolic limits of a mass demonstration at the memorial?

Group 3: Black press reaction

1. According to the Chicago Defender [download], what was the seating arrangement at the ceremony?
   
2. Why did the Defender view the memorial as "opened but not dedicated?"
   
3. How did the Defender describe the differences between Harding's and Moton's speeches?

• 1963 March on Washington
Group 4: Martin Luther King, Jr., "I Have a Dream" speech [download]

1. What was King's view of Lincoln?
   
2. What did he hope to accomplish with the march?
   
3. What "sacred" language does he use? Why?

Group 5: John L. Lewis original and final draft [download]

1. What changes did Lewis make to his speech?
   
2. Why do you think march organizers pressured Lewis to revise his speech?
   
3. Should he have agreed to alter his speech?
   
4. Would it have been better not to speak at all?
   
5. How did the revision of Lewis's speech illustrate the symbolic limits of a mass demonstration at the memorial?

Group 6: Malcolm X, "Farce on Washington" and Excerpt from Autobiography of Malcolm X [download]

1. According to Malcolm X, what diluted the revolution?
   
2. What did he think of the day's symbolic activities?
   
3. What evidence did he cite to show that the march failed to accomplish anything?
   
4. What was the ultimate accomplishment of the march, in Malcolm's view?

• 1995 Million Man March
Group 7: Louis Farrakhan's speech [download]

1. What was Farrakhan's view of Lincoln?
   
2. What was his view of unity and division both within America as a whole and among African Americans?
   
3. What was his goal for the march?

Group 8: Bill Clinton's speech at University of Texas [download]

1. What was Clinton's view of Lincoln?
   
2. How did he praise the Million Man March?
   
3. How did he criticize it?
   
4. Why did he emphasize national unity?
   
5. According to Clinton, what did white and black Americans need to do to overcome their deep divisions?

Group 9: New York Times editorials, Cornell West, "Why I'm Marching" [download] and R.W. Apple, Jr., "Ardor and Ambiguity" [download]

1. According to West, why was Farrakhan such a controversial figure? Why was West disturbed by recent interpretations of King's legacy? What were his three reasons for marching?
   
2. According to Apple, what was ambiguous about the march? How was Farrakhan's message different from King's "Dream" speech? How did he describe the political implications of the march? In the end, did Apple think the march would alleviate or worsen racial tensions?

E. The three groups within each memorial moment should share their document questions and answers with each other. They should then prepare a class presentation that answers the following questions (10 minutes):

1. Groups 1, 2, and 3:
   
   1. Who controlled the dedication ceremony?
      
   2. What were the differences between Harding's view of Lincoln and Moton's view of Lincoln (in both the original and final drafts)?
      
   3. Was the dedication ceremony a moment of national unity or division or both? Why?
      
2. Groups 4, 5, and 6:
   
   1. Who controlled the march?
      
   2. How did views of the march differ among MLK, John Lewis, and Malcolm X?
      
   3. Was the march a moment of national unity or division or both? Why?
      
3. Groups 7, 8, and 9:
   
   1. Who controlled the march?
      
   2. How were Farrakhan's and Clinton's views of the Million Man March different?
      
   3. Was the march a moment of national unity or division or both? Why?

G. Conclusion/Homework: Have students write a 200-300 word essay that answers the following question: Was the Lincoln Memorial a symbol of national unity or division or both? Be sure to cite specific examples from the documents. (For a more in-depth homework assignment, make all the documents available to students and then require them to write a longer essay that incorporates all of them.)

Endnotes

1. Daughters of the American Revolution, Mission Statement, 1890. <http://www.dar.org/natsociety/history.cfm>.
   
2. Scott Sandage, "A Marble House Divided: The Lincoln Memorial, Civil Rights and the Politics of Memory, 1939-1963," Journal of American History 80 (June 1993): 135-67, 144.
   
3. Merrill Peterson, Lincoln in American Memory (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994).
   
4. Sandage, "A Marble House Divided," 136.

Primary Sources

• 1922 Dedication Ceremony
Text of Warren Harding's "Address at the Dedication of the Lincoln Memorial," May 30, 1922: [download] <http://ia311326.us.archive.org/3/items/presidentharding02unit/presidentharding02unit.pdf>.

Text of Robert Russa Moton's dedication speech (original draft), May 30, 1922:
<http://www.gloucesterinstitute.org/Gloucester/files/ccLibraryFiles/Filename/000000000278/Moton%20Speech-May301922.pdf>. [download].

Chicago Defender columns: [download]

• 1963 March on Washington
Transcript of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream Speech," [download] August 28, 1963: <http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkihaveadream.htm>.

Text from John Lewis's original march speech, August 28, 1963: [download]
<http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/45a/641.html>.

Excerpt from Malcolm X's Autobiography of Malcolm X [download] (New York: Grove Press, 1965): <http://myweb.facstaff.wwu.edu/richarm/104primdoc/malcolm_x.pdf>.

Text of Malcolm X's "Message to the Grass Roots," [download] Detroit, November 10, 1963: <http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/malcolmxgrassroots.htm>.

• 1995 Million Man March
Transcript of Minister Louis Farrakhan's remarks at the Million Man March, [download] October 17, 1995: <hhttp://www-cgi.cnn.com/US/9510/megamarch/10-16/transcript/>.

Transcript of William J. Clinton's remarks at the University of Texas, [download] October 16, 1995: <http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=50658&st=university+of+texas&st1=>.

"Why I'm Marching in Washington," Cornell West, New York Times, October 14, 1995.
"Ardor and Ambiguity," R.W. Apple Jr. New York Times, October 17, 1995. Both editorials are available at: http://www.oah.org/pubs/magazine/llegacy/.

Bibliography

Fairclough, Adam. "Civil Rights and the Lincoln Memorial: The Censored Speeches of Robert R. Moton (1922) and John Lewis (1963)," Journal of Negro History 82 (Autumn, 1997): 408-16.

Hufbauer, Benjamin. Presidential Temples: How Memorials and Libraries Shape Public Memory. Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 2005.

Peterson, Merrill D. Lincoln in American Memory. New York: Oxford University Press, 1991.

Sandage, Scott A. "A Marble House Divided: The Lincoln Memorial, Civil Rights, and the Politics of Memory, 1939-1963." Journal of American History 80 (June 1993): 135-67.

Schwartz, Barry. Abraham Lincoln and the Forge of National Memory. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000.>

Thomas, Christopher A. The Lincoln Memorial and American Life. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2002.