Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln (February 12 1809 – April 15 1865)

was the 16th President of the United States. He served as
president from 1861 to 1865, during the American Civil
War. Just five days after most of the Confederate forces
had surrendered and the war was ending, John Wilkes
Booth assassinated Lincoln. Lincoln was the first
president of the United States to be assassinated. Lincoln
has been remembered as the "Great Emancipator"
because he worked to end slavery in the United States.

Life
Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809,
in Hodgenville, Kentucky, United States. His parents were
Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks. His family was very
poor. Abraham had one brother and one sister. His
brother died in childhood. They grew up in a small log
cabin, with just one room inside. Although slavery was
legal in Kentucky at that time, Lincoln's father, who was a religious Baptist, refused to own
any slaves.
When Lincoln was seven years old, his family moved to Indiana. Later they moved to Illinois. In his
childhood he helped his father on the farm, but when he was 22 years old he left home and moved
to New Salem, Illinois, where he worked in a general store. Later, he said that he had gone
to school for just one year, but that was enough to learn how to read, write, and do simple math. In
1842, he married Mary Todd Lincoln. They had four children, but three of them died when they were
very young. Abraham Lincoln was sometimes called Abe Lincoln or "Honest Abe" after he ran miles
to give a customer the right amount of change. The nickname "Honest Abe" came from a time when
he started a business that failed. Instead of running away like many people would have, he stayed
and worked to pay off his debt.

Early political career

Lincoln started his political career in 1832 when he ran for the IGA Illinois General Assembly, but he
lost the election. He served as a captain in the Illinois militia during the Black Hawk War, a war
with Native American tribes. When he moved to Springfield in 1837, he began to work as a lawyer.
Soon, he became one of the most highly respected lawyers in Illinois. In 1837, as a member of the
Illinois General Assembly, Lincoln issued a written protest of its passage of a resolution stating that
slavery could not be abolished in Washington, D.C.
In 1841, he won a court case (Bailey v. Cromwell). He represented a black woman who claimed she
had already been freed and could not be sold as a slave. In 1847, he lost a case (Matson v.
Rutherford) representing a slave owner (Robert Matson) claiming return of fugitive slaves. After he
moved to Illinois, he worked as a shopkeeper and postmaster. He rode the circuit of courts for many
years. When he was 21, he worked on a flatboat that carried freight. He joined the Independent Spy
Corp. At first, he was a member of the Whig Party. He later became a Republican. Lincoln ran for
senate against Stephen A. Douglas. Douglas won.
In 1846, Lincoln joined the Whig Party and was elected to one term in the House of Representatives.
After that, he ignored his political career and instead worked as a lawyer. In 1854, in reaction to the
passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, Lincoln became involved in politics again. He joined
the Republican Party, which had recently been formed in opposition to the expansion of slavery. In
1858, he wanted to become senator; although this was unsuccessful, the debates drew national
attention to him. The Republican Party nominated him for the Presidential election of 1860.

Presidency

Lincoln was chosen as a candidate for the elections in 1860 for different reasons. Among these
reasons were that his views on slavery were less extreme than those of other people who wanted to
be candidates. Lincoln was from what was then one of the Western states, and had a bigger chance
of winning the election there. Other candidates that were older or more experienced than him
had enemies inside the party. Lincoln's family was poor, which added to the Republican position
of free labor, the opposite of slave labor. Lincoln won the election in 1860, and was made the 16th
President of the United States. He won with almost no votes in the South. For the first time, a
president had won the election because of the large support he got from the states in the
North. During his presidency Lincoln became well-known because of his large stovepipe hat. He
used his tall hat to store papers and documents when he was traveling.
Lincoln and the Civil War

After Lincoln's election in 1860, seven

States (South Carolina, Mississippi,
Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Texas and
Louisiana) formed the Confederate States
of America. When the United States
refused to surrender Fort
Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina, the
Confederates attacked the fort, beginning
the American Civil War. Later, four more
states (Arkansas, Virginia, Tennessee,
and North Carolina) joined the
Confederacy for a total of eleven. In his
whole period as President, he had to
rebuild the Union with military force and
many bloody battles. He also had to stop
the "border states", like Kentucky,
Missouri, and Maryland, from leaving the Union and joining the Confederacy.
Lincoln was not a general, and had only been in the army for a short time during the Black Hawk
War.[16] However, he still took a major role in the war, often spending days and days in the War
Department. His plan was to cut off the South by surrounding it with ships, control the Mississippi
River, and take Richmond, the Confederate capital. He often clashed with generals in the field,
especially George B. McClellan, and fired generals who lost battles or were not aggressive enough.
Eventually, he made Ulysses S. Grant the top general in the army.

Emancipation Proclamation
With the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, Lincoln ordered the freedom of all slaves
in those states still in rebellion during the American Civil War. It did not actually immediately free all
those slaves however, since those areas were still controlled by the rebelling states of
the Confederacy. Only a small number of slaves already behind Union lines were immediately freed.
As the Union army advanced, nearly all four million slaves were effectively freed. Some former
slaves joined the Union army. The Proclamation also did not free slaves in the slave states that had
remained loyal to the Union (the federal government of the US). Neither did it apply to areas where
Union forces had already regained control.[1] Until the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
in 1865, only the states had power to end slavery within their own borders, so Lincoln issued the
proclamation as a war measure.
The Proclamation made freeing the slaves a Union goal for the war, and put an end to movements in
European nations (especially in Great Britain and France) that would have recognized the
Confederacy as an independent nation. Lincoln then sponsored a constitutional amendment to free
all slaves. The Thirteenth Amendment, making slavery illegal everywhere in the United States, was
passed late in 1865, eight months after Lincoln was assassinated.
Gettysburg Address
Lincoln made a famous speech after the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863 called the Gettysburg Address.
The battle was very important, and many soldiers from both sides died. The speech was given at the
new cemetery for the dead soldiers. It is one of the most famous speeches in American history.[17]
Second term and assassination
Lincoln was reelected president in 1864 and re-
inaugurated March 4 1865. Soon afterwards, it
appeared likely that the Union would win the Civil
War. Lincoln proposed lenient terms for restoring
self-government in the states that had rebelled. On
April 9 1865, the leading Confederate general,
Robert E. Lee, surrendered his armies. On April 11,
1865, Lincoln gave a speech in which he promoted
voting rights for blacks.[18]
On April 14th, Lincoln went to attend a play with his
wife at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C.. During
the third act of the play, John Wilkes Booth, a well-
known actor and a Confederate spy from Maryland,
entered the presidential box and shot Lincoln
at point-blank range,[19]mortally wounding him. An
unconscious Lincoln was carried across the street
to Petersen House. He was placed diagonally on the bed because his tall frame would not fit
normally on the smaller bed.[20] He remained in a coma for nine hours before dying the next
morning.[21]According to some accounts, at his last drawn breath, on the morning after the
assassination, he smiled broadly and then expired.[22]Lincoln was the first American president to
be assassinated.[23]
Booth escaped, but died from shots fired during his capture on April 26.

Legacy
Lincoln has been consistently ranked both by scholars[24] and the public[25] as one of the greatest U.S.
presidents. He is often considered the greatest president for his leadership during the American Civil
War and his eloquence in speeches such as the Gettysburg Address.
Mahatma Gandhi

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (Hindi: मोहनदास करमचन्द

गाां धी; Gujarati: મોહનદાસ કરમચંદ ગાંધી; Sindhi:‫;محاتما گاندهي‬
October 1869 – 30 January 1948) was a leader
of nationalism in British-ruled India. He is more commonly
called Mahatma Gandhi;[1] mahatma is an honorific meaning
"great-soul" or "venerable" in Sanskrit. He was first called this
in 1914 in South Africa. He is also called Bapu in India
(Gujarati endearment for "father", "papa").
He was the Martyr of the Nation since 1948. Rabindranath
Tagore gave him the title of 'Mahatma'.[2]
Gandhi was one of the most important people involved in the
movement for the independence of India. He was a non-
violent activist, who led the independence movement through a
non-violent protest.

Early life
Gandhi was born on October 2, 1869 in Porbandar, Gujarat,
India.[3] Several members of his family worked for the government of the state. When Gandhi was 18
years old, he went to England to study law.[4] After he became a lawyer, he went to the British colony
of South Africa where he experienced laws that said people with dark skin had fewer rights than
people with light skin. In 1897, Gandhi was attacked by a group of people in Durban Harbor, South
Africa when he was going to work. He went to South Africa because he could not find work in
India.[5] When traveling through South Africa, Gandhi was also kicked out of a first class train
because of his skin color. Then Gandhi started protesting against segregation.[6] He decided then to
become a political activist, so he could help change these unfair laws. He created a powerful, non-
violent movement. During Gandhi's life, India was a colony of the United Kingdom, but
wanted independence. He was a huge leader during that era and his thoughts helped catalyse the
Indian independence movement.[7]

As an activist
In 1915, when Gandhi returned to India, he decided to again lead a march against a law called the
Rowlatt Act. But then the protest turned violent and people started to kill the protesters.[8]
In 1930, Gandhi led the Salt March. The Salt March was part of the Indian independence
movement. It was a non-violent protest against the salt tax by British government. The Indians were
upset that the government increased the price of salt. 78 people began the march with Gandhi, who
intended to walk 240 miles (390 km) to the coastal village of Dandi, which was located at a small
town called Navsari (now in the state of Gujarat). As Gandhi and the others continued on what would
become a 24-day march to Dandi to produce salt without paying the tax, growing numbers of Indians
joined them along the way.
Mahatma Gandhi led the march. It started on March 12, 1930. It went from sabarmati Ashram to the
village of Dandi. Marchers took a handful of salt from the shore. They then announced that they had
broken the law by making salt. This was a major but peaceful challenge against Britain colony. This
move enraged the British and called for his arrest.
When he returned to India, he helped cause India's independence from British rule, inspiring other
colonial people to work for their own independence, break up the British Empire, and replace it with
the Commonwealth.
People of many different religions and ethnic groups lived in British India. Many people thought that
the country should break into separate countries so that different groups could have their own
countries. In particular, many people thought that Hindus and Muslims should have separate
countries. Gandhi was a Hindu, but he liked ideas from many religions
including Islam, Judaism and Christianity, and he thought that people of all religions should have the
same rights, and could live together peacefully in the same country.
In 1938, Gandhi resigned from Congress. He said that he was no longer able to work through
Congress to unite the divisions in caste and religion. He also felt that he had little to offer to the
political process.[9]
In 1947, British Indian Empire became independent, breaking India in two, India and Pakistan.
Gandhi wanted independence, but did not want to split into two different countries. Instead of
celebrating on independence day, he was crying over the division of India.
Gandhi's principle of satyagraha, often translated as "way of truth" or "pursuit of truth", has inspired
other democratic and anti-racist activists like Martin Luther King, Jr. and Nelson Mandela. Gandhi
often said that his values were simple, based upon traditional Hindu beliefs: truth (satya), and non-
violence (ahimsa).

Death
On January 30, 1948, Gandhi was assassinated by an extremist Hindu activist , Nathuram Godse.
He shot him because he felt that Gandhi was too respectful towards Muslims. As a punishment for
this he was hanged. He was honored in a way very few are.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Martin Luther King, Jr. (January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968)[1] was
an American pastor, activist, humanitarian, and leader in the African-American Civil Rights
Movement. He was best known for improving civil rights by using nonviolent civil disobedience,
based on his Christian beliefs. Because he was both a Ph.D. and a pastor, King is sometimes called
the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King Jr. (abbreviation: the Rev. Dr. King), or just Dr. King.[a] He is
also known by his initials MLK.
King worked hard to make people understand that not only blacks, but that all races should always
be treated equally to white people. He gave speeches to encourage African
Americans to protest without using violence.
Led by Dr. King and others, many African Americans used nonviolent, peaceful strategies to fight for
their civil rights. These strategies included sit-ins, boycotts, and protest marches. Often, they were
attacked by white police officers or people who did not want African Americans to have more rights.
However, no matter how badly they were attacked, Dr. King and his followers never fought back.
King also helped to organize the 1963 March on Washington, where he delivered his "I Have a
Dream" speech. The next year, he won the Nobel Peace Prize.
King fought for equal rights from the start of the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955 until he was
murdered by James Earl Ray in April 1968.

Early life
Martin Luther King was born in Atlanta, Georgia, on January 15, 1929. Although the name "Michael"
appeared on his birth certificate, his name was later changed to Martin Luther in honor
of German reformer Martin Luther.[2]
As King was growing up, everything in Georgia was segregated. This meant that black and white
people were not allowed to go to the same schools, use the same public bathrooms, eat at the same
restaurants, or even go to the same hospitals. Everything was separate. However, the white
hospitals, schools, and other places were usually much better than the places where black people
were allowed to go.[3]
At age 6, King first went through discrimination (being treated worse than a white person because he
was black). He was sent to an all-black school, and a white friend was sent to an all-white school.[1]
Once, when he was 14, King won a contest with a speech about civil rights. When he was going
back home on a bus, he was forced to give up his seat and stand for the bus ride so a white person
could sit down.[1] At the time, white people were seen as more important than black people. If a white
person wanted a seat, that person could take the seat from any African American.[3] King later said
having to give up his seat made him "the angriest I've ever been in my life."[4]
Education
King went to segregated schools in Georgia, and finished high school at age 15.[2] He went on
to Morehouse College in Georgia, where his father and grandfather had gone.[2] After graduating
from college in 1948, King decided he was not exactly the type of person to join the Baptist Church.
He was not sure what kind of career he wanted. He thought about being a doctor or a lawyer. He
decided not to do either, and joined the Baptist Church. [5]
King went to a seminary in Pennsylvania to become a pastor. While studying there, King learned
about the non-violent methods used by Mahatma Gandhi against the British Empire in India. King
was convinced that these non-violent methods would help the civil rights movement.[6]
Finally, in 1955, King earned a Ph.D. from Boston University's School of Theology.[1]

Civil rights work

Montgomery Bus Boycott
King first started his civil rights activism in 1955. At that time, he led a protest against the way black
people were segregated on buses.[7] They had to sit at the back of the bus, separate from white
people.[3] He told his supporters, and the people who were against equal rights, that people should
only use peaceful ways to solve the problem.[8]
King was chosen as president of the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA), which was
created during the boycott. Rosa Parks later said: "Dr. King was chosen in part because he was
relatively new to the community and so [he] did not have any enemies."[9] King ended up becoming
an important leader of the boycott, becoming famous around the country, and making many
enemies.[10]
King was arrested for starting a boycott. He was fined $500, plus $500 more in court costs.[11] His
house was fire-bombed. Others involved with MIA were also threatened.[7] However, by December
1956, segregation had been ended on Montgomery's buses. People could sit anywhere they wanted
on the buses.[12]
After the bus boycott, King and Ralph Abernathy started the Southern Christian Leadership
Conference (SCLC).[7] The group decided that they would only use non-violence. Its motto was "Not
one hair of one head of one person should be harmed."[13] The SCLC chose King as its president.[7]
March on Washington
In 1963, King helped plan the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. This was the largest
protest for human rights in United States history.[14] On August 28, 1963, about 250,000 people
marched from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial.[14][15] Then they listened to civil
rights leaders speak. King was the last speaker. His speech, called "I Have a Dream," became one
of history's most famous civil rights speeches.[16] King talked about his dream that one day, white and
black people would be equal.
That same year, the United States government passed the Civil Rights Act. This law made many
kinds of discrimination against black people illegal.[17] The March on Washington made it clear to the
United States government that they needed to take action on civil rights, and it helped get the Civil
Rights Act passed.[18]
Nobel Prize
In 1964, King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.[2] When presenting him with the award, the
Chairman of the Nobel Committee said:
Today, now that mankind [has] the atom bomb, the time has come to lay our weapons
and armaments aside and listen to the message Martin Luther King has given us[:] "The choice is
either nonviolence or nonexistence"....

[King] is the first person in the Western world to have shown us that a struggle can be waged without
violence. He is the first to make the message of brotherly love a reality in the course of his struggle,
and he has brought this message to all men, to all nations and races. [6]

Voting rights
King and many others then started working on the problem of racism in voting. At the time, many of
the Southern states had laws which made it very hard or impossible for African-Americans to vote.
For example, they would make African Americans pay extra taxes, pass reading tests, or pass tests
about the Constitution. White people did not have to do these things.[19]
In 1963 and 1964, civil rights groups in Selma, Alabama had been trying to sign African-American
people up to vote, but they had not been able to. At the time, 99% of the people signed up to vote in
Selma were white.[20] However, the government workers who signed up voters were all white. They
refused to sign up African-Americans.[19] In January 1965, these civil rights groups asked King and
the SCLC to help them. Together, they started working on voting rights.[1] However, the next month,
an African-American man named Jimmie Lee Jackson was shot by a police officer during a peaceful
march. Jackson died.[21]pp.121-123 Many African-American people were very angry.
The SCLC decided to organize a march from Selma to Montgomery.[22] By walking
54 miles (87 kilometers) to the state capital, activists hoped to show how badly African-Americans
wanted to vote. They also wanted to show that they would not let racism or violence stop them from
getting equal rights.[20]
The first march was on March 7, 1965. Police officers, and people they had chosen to help them,
attacked the marchers with clubs and tear gas. They threatened to throw the marchers off
the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Seventeen marchers had to go to the hospital, and 50 others were
also injured.[23] This day came to be called Bloody Sunday. Pictures and film of the marchers being
beaten were shown around the world, in newspapers and on television.[24] Seeing these things made
more people support the civil rights activists. People came from all over the United States to march
with the activists. One of them, James Reeb, was attacked by white people for supporting civil rights.
He died on March 11, 1965.[25]
Finally, President Lyndon B. Johnson decided to send soldiers from the United States Army and the
Alabama National Guard to protect the marchers.[21] From March 21 to March 25, the marchers
walked along the "Jefferson Davis Highway" from Selma to Montgomery.[21] Led by King and other
leaders, 25,000 people who entered Montgomery on March 25.[21] He gave a speech called "How
Long? Not Long" at the Alabama State Capitol. He told the marchers that it would not be long before
they had equal rights, "because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice."[26]
On August 6, 1965, the United States passed the Voting Rights Act. This law made it illegal to stop
somebody from voting because of their race.[27]
Later work
After this, King continued to fight poverty and the Vietnam War.[1]
Assassination
King had made enemies by working for civil rights and becoming such a powerful leader. The Ku
Klux Klan did what they could to hurt King's reputation, especially in the South. The Federal Bureau
of Investigation (FBI) watched King closely. They wiretapped his phones, his home, and the phones
and homes of his friends.[28]
On April 4, 1968, King was in Memphis, Tennessee. He planned to lead a protest march to support
garbage workers who were on strike. At 6:01 pm, King was shot while he was standing on
the balcony of his motel room.[29]pp.284-285 The bullet entered through his right cheek and travelled down
his neck. It cut open the biggest veins and arteries in King's neck before stopping in his shoulder.[30]
King was rushed to St. Joseph's Hospital. His heart had stopped. Doctors there cut open
his chest and tried to make his heart start pumping again.[30] However, they were unable to save
King's life. He died at 7:05 p.m.[29]pp.284-285
King's death led to riots in many cities.[31]
In March 1969, James Earl Ray was found guilty of killing King. He was sentenced to 99 years
in prison.[32] Ray died in 1998.[33]

Legacy
Just days after King's death, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1968.[34] Title VIII of the Act,
usually called the Fair Housing Act, made it illegal to discriminate in housing because of a person's
race, religion, or home country. (For example, this made it illegal for a realtor to refuse to let a black
family buy a house in a white neighborhood.) This law was seen as a tribute to King's last few years
of work fighting housing discrimination in the United States.[34]
After his death, King was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.[36] King and his wife were also
awarded the Congressional Gold Medal.[37]
In 1986, the United States government created a national holiday in King's honor. It is called Martin
Luther King, Jr. Day. It is celebrated on the third Monday in January.[1] This is around the time of
King's birthday. Many people fought for the holiday to be created, including singer Stevie Wonder.
In 2003, the United States Congress passed a law allowing the beginning words of King's "I Have a
Dream" speech to be carved into the Lincoln Memorial.[38]
King County in the state of Washington, is named after King.[39] Originally, the county was named
after William R. King, an American politician who owned slaves.[39] In 2005, the King County
government decided the county would now be named after Martin Luther King, Jr. Two years later,
they changed their official logo to include a picture of King.[39]
More than 900 streets in the United States have also been named after King. These streets exist in
40 different states; Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico. and many others[40]
In 2011, a memorial statue of King was put up on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.
There are also memorials for King around the world. These include:[41]

 The Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. Church in Hungary

 The King-Luthuli Transformation Center in Johannesburg, South Africa
 The Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. Forest in Israel's Southern Galilee area (along with the Coretta
Scott King Forest in Biriya Forest, Israel)
 The Martin Luther King, Jr. School in Accra, Ghana
 The Gandhi-King Plaza (garden), at the India International Center in New Delhi, India
 A statue of King at Westminster Abbey in London
 A statue dedicated to Martin Luther King Jr. in Uppsala, Sweden.