Understanding Lincoln: Life and Legacy of Our 16th President

Edna Greene Medford, one of the nation's foremost historians on President Abraham Lincoln, is a professor of history at Howard University. She also specializes in 19th century African- American history and remains a member of the board of the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Foundation, which honors the president who championed emancipation. Medford, who holds undergraduate and graduate degrees from Hampton University and the University of Illinois, earned a Ph.D. in History from the University of Maryland. She is the author of Lincoln and Emancipation (2015) and co-author of The Emancipation Proclamation: Three Views (2016). Medford also compiled and wrote the introductions to the edited twovolume work The Price of Freedom: Slavery and the Civil War - Volume I , and The Price of Freedom: Slavery and the Civil War - Volume II , both published in 2000. Additionally, Medford, 68, is well-known for taking principled positions, based on research, on historical analysis that doesn't always fit neatly into the preconceived views of historic figures, Lincoln included. In a 2009 interview with C-SPAN, Medford discussed the views of race regarding Lincoln and the power structure of the time. "I think he would have still been very surprised at (President Barack Obama's election)," she said. "(Lincoln) indicated that he would like to see the vote extended to those African- Americans who were very intelligent, and the soldiers and sailors who had fought to preserve the Union (but not voting rights overall for people of color). Certainly there were people, Lincoln included, who would have thought that slavery would have damaged African- Americans in terms of enabling them to think logically and to vote. "And so he would have anticipated a greater period of time in which they would have learned to be good citizens," Medford continued. "Certainly African-Americans would have disagreed with that perception of them, but that certainly was the position of many Americans during that period, and Lincoln was no exception. But the fact that he was even suggesting that the very intelligent and Black Union veterans should vote was extraordinary."