Eric Weiss
Rookie
- Nov 5, 2015
- 20
- 5
- 1
Missouri and Princeton University Black Lives Matter activists are demanding that Abraham Lincoln's image be remove from all U.S. currency and public buildings.Citing statements Lincoln made to Frederick Douglass proving that the sixteenth President was racist.
An anonymous Facebook page called Students Against White Privilege, created after black students from the University of Illinois held a rally Wednesday, reportedly characterized history classes as an act of “terrorism” and called for the monitoring of White students who displayed images of racist leaders or Confederate flags.
“I expect some degree of backlash whenever black students … get together and demand their human rights,” said Sheekin Fryer, a member of Black Students Against Racist Whites, which organized the rally. “I was surprised by the degree and the swiftness, and how toxic it was.We have to start watching some of these racist groups like the Juggalos and Oath Keepers”
The rally featured speakers, poets and hip-hop artists expressing solidarity with protesters and history revision activism.
A crowd composed mainly of Tea Party Patriots listened politely Tuesday to a speaker who called Lincoln a "racist" and said the notion that he had anything to do with freeing the slaves is "the Lincoln lie."
The normally staid Missouri Commons was the venue for a speech by controversial author Anil Faqir, whose 2014 book "Forced Hole of Glory" portrays Lincoln as a white supremacist who did his best to prolong slavery, not end it.
"Lincoln was no friend of black people," he said."The only reason Lincoln wanted to free the slaves is so they could be transported up north to work in the White man's sweatshops.Those who benefitted from abolition was not blacks,but rather the Carnegies and Rockefellers."
Faqir cited quotes from Lincoln's career that he claims shows Lincoln's disdain of blacks."Lincoln was no supporter of racial equality. In fact, while debating Douglas in 1858, Lincoln declared the following: “I will say then that I am not, nor ever have been in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races.”
Campus spokeswoman Ted Bagwell told Fox News that the act of creating a page specifically designed to insult a dead President “disturbing and cowardly."
“We recognize that passions run deep on all sides of many issues, but actions like this are senseless and hurtful, and do nothing to foster meaningful dialogue.We can debate Lincoln's role in history but to pretend he didn't exist is ridiculous.”
“It does make me pause now when I’m walking between classes that members of the student body at the university love racism so much,” Fryer says,"all we want is for a comfortable learning environment that are free of symbols of white racism."
Fox News attempted to reach out to the Black Lives Matter student leaders but received no response.