Saturday, March 27, 2010

Lewis Tappan Quotes (4)

To sneak back

Arthur and Lewis Tappan were business men of the 1800s who helped subsidize a good bit of abolitionism, Finney, etc. Here are some quotes from Don Dayton's chapter on the two men.

Lewis Tappan: Children should be raised sensitive to the issue of race so that as adults they, with African-Americans, would "be able to meet at the polls, sit on juries, attend political meetings, practice at the bar, unite in processions, and mingle with their fellow-men in the various walks of life, on equal terms, as the religion of Jesus, and the laws of the land require." Sad that it took the civil rights movement over a hundred years later to get us anywhere close to this vision. I continue to attribute a good deal of the degree of anger toward Obama to the fact that he is black.

In 1863, near the end of his life, Tappan joked that while some claimed blacks were superior to whites in intelligence and strength, he wasn't so sure. Just maybe "a white man was just as good as a black man, if he behaved himself." Tappan ended with this poem:

"Judge not of virtue by the name, Or think to read it on the skin; Honor in white nad black the same--the stamp of glory is within."

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

"I continue to attribute a good deal of the degree of anger toward Obama to the fact that he is black."

If that was the case, it is doubtful he would have been elected. I think you underestimate the dislike of the policies, not the skin tone (Obama's personal ratings are still pretty good).


Do you think that if Colin Powell was president, with his more "centrist/conservative" views, there would be anger?

Rick