Abraham Lincoln statues

[David Lockmiller]

School Board Meeting on the Resolution for Renaming of San Francisco Schools held on January 26, 2021.

The principal direct attack upon President Lincoln regarding the "Dakota 38," in the School Board Meeting on the Resolution for Renaming of San Francisco Schools, came from one of the members of the "blue ribbon" School Names Advisory Committee, Mary Travis, a native American. In her time from 6:14:01 to 6:18:10, at the 6:15:30 mark, she states: "Lincoln, historically, in the text books, people have talked about what a great guy he was; he emancipated slavery and stuff. He also hung over 300 Lakota people for standing up for being persecuted, then living in poverty and starvation. For somebody to say "he did one thing in his lifelong career, that doesn't make him a bad person," well, that one thing was a pretty horrendous act, the largest mass hanging in the history of this country. . . . She went on to ask: "How many history books tell the true history about the mass hanging and what it represented?"

[Note: I informed each and every member of the San Francisco School Board of Professor Michael Burlingame's book (for which he won the prestigious Lincoln Prize in 2010) of the extensive discussion of the "Dakota 38" subject matter within this same book in my email to them before 10 AM of the day BEFORE the School Board's Zoom Meeting and their subsequent 6 - 1 vote to rename Abraham Lincoln High School for just cause.]

Not one of the elected San Francisco Board of Education members raised their hand in the ZOOM meeting to correct unequivocally the statement made by Mary Travis that President Lincoln had signed the execution order of "over 300 Lakota people." Jeremiah Jeffries, the chairman of School Names Advisory Committee, who spoke almost immediately after Mary Travis had spoken, also did not correct this important gross numerical misstatement of factual history by Mary Travis that President Abraham Lincoln had ordered the execution of "over 300 Lakota people."

The members of the San Francisco School Board are supposed to be paying attention in these Public Zoom Meetings. At this time, it can only be presumed that the individual members were actually aware at the time of their vote that only the "Dakota 38" had been ordered to be executed by President Lincoln in his role as this democracy's "final appeal" officer of federal execution orders.

But, it is indisputable that their 6 - 1 vote to rename Abraham Lincoln High School for just cause dishonors President Lincoln's character and reputation in American history.

The unequivocal and indisputable facts of history are that President Lincoln signed execution orders of the "Dakota 38," but only after ordering the review of all trial records of all 303 Native Americans convicted and sentenced to death after military trials. In short, President Lincoln overruled for just reasons the death sentences for 265 Dakota Indians who had been convicted of murder or rape. Therefore, President Lincoln spared the lives of 265 Native Americans, who but for his just and fair actions as President, would have been executed.

San Francisco Board of Education Commissioner Matt Alexander made his comments to the Full Board and the Public at 6:26:42 to 6:30:05 on the video. He states at 6:27:30 -- "I grew up learning about Abraham Lincoln as an idol. . . . As I grew up I learned my education as a young person was actually flawed. I didn't know everything there was to know about Lincoln. I didn't learn about the "Dakota 38" until much later."

San Francisco Board of Education Commissioner Allison M. Collins made her comments to the Full Board and the Public at 6:30:21 to 6:32:08 on the video. She began by saying "My birthday's is on Lincoln's birthday. . . . As a black person and as a black student, I did not grow up with a positive impression because as a black person you learn the history of American presidents, and especially founding fathers, in a very different way. [I hear the false "1619 Project" propaganda rhetoric being repeated by a San Francisco Board of Education Commissioner.] She continued: "His [Lincoln's] history with Native Americans was also something that I did not learn about until recently." [Presumably, Lincoln's "history with Native Americans" is a reference made by her to the "Dakota 38."]

In the past, my bother-in-law would at times refer to some people as being "dumber than a box of rocks." I consider the members of the San Francisco School Names Advisory Committee and the San Francisco Board of Education to be "dumber than two boxes of rocks."

There is to be a "final" vote on their ill-considered resolution to rename 44 San Francisco school for just and equitable causes, including Abraham Lincoln High School. I hope that the members of the San Francisco School Board get "educated" on President Abraham Lincoln pretty soon.