On this day in 1866

Feb. 7, 1866

Frederick Douglass circa 1879 Credit: Wikipedia

Ten months after Abraham Lincoln’s assassination, a delegation of Black men, led by Frederick Douglass, met with President Andrew Johnson at the White House. 

Southern states had already begun to impose “Black Codes” on Black Americans now freed from slavery. 

In their meeting with Johnson, Douglass and others shared why it was important that the right to vote be given to Black Americans and enforced. Johnson rejected their proposal and responded with what sounded like a prepared speech, arguing that “a war of races” would take place between newly freed Black Americans and their poor, white counterparts. 

After the meeting, Douglass and the others penned a letter to the president, saying while it was true the hostility existed, the roots of such hatred were found in the system of slavery. The end of such slavery can help to bring the end to such hate, they wrote. 

They questioned how Johnson could allow these Black Codes to continue “for a people whom you have repeatedly declared your purpose to maintain in freedom.” 

They told the president that “peace between races can not be secured by degrading one race and exalting another, by giving power to one race and withholding it from another, but by maintaining a state of equal justice between all classes.” 

In the years that followed, Douglass continued to rise as a leader, championing the rights of both African Americans and women. 

Johnson became the first president impeached, dodging removal from office by one vote in the Senate. He eventually returned to Tennessee and the U.S. Senate, dying just a few months later.

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