July 30, 2009
To [Henry] Gates, this translates intoprizing Lincoln because "he wrestled with his often contradictory feelings," and "faced and confronted his own prejudices, and, to a remarkable extent, overcame them." (What a fine guest on Oprah Lincoln would have been!) By combining different African American perspectives on Lincoln, no matter how mutually exclusive; by quoting friends and putative authorities, black and white, all the way from Harvard to The New Yorker; and by ending on a positive bicentennial note, Gates does his best to get right with Douglass. He is ready for his gig on PBS. Nobody's wrong if everybody's right. -- Who Lincoln Was
Posted by Vanderleun at July 30, 2009 11:19 AM. This is an entry on the sideblog of American Digest: Check it out.