Civil rights leader John Lewis has white men to thank for the civil rights advancements Black Americans have seen, according to Maine Gov. Paul LePage.
“How about John Lewis last week, criticizing the president,” he said during an interview with Maine radio station WVOM. “You know, I will just say this: John Lewis ought to look at history. It was Abraham Lincoln that freed the slaves. It was Rutherford B. Hayes and Ulysses S. Grant that fought against Jim Crow laws. A simple thank you would suffice.”
LePage’s assessment is historically inaccurate, however. President Abraham Lincoln did in 1863 sign the Emancipation Proclamation and advocated for the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment, abolishing slavery. But according to historians, Jim Crow laws did not exist during President Ulysses S. Grant’s administration, which spanned from 1869-1877. President Rutherford B. Hayes, who served as president from 1877-1881, oversaw the end of Reconstruction — and the beginning of Jim Crow laws, which remained in effect for nearly a century.
