The most perilous Thanksgiving for our nation since the Civil War—yet still we can be thankful

Still Much to be grateful for!

It’s fitting that the modern-day version of Thanksgiving came into being during the time of a bitter divide in our nation. In the heart of the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation on October 3, 1863 calling for “a Day of Thanksgiving” to take place the last Thursday in November.

This Thanksgiving proclamation came just a few months after the brutal and bloody Battle of Gettysburg in July 1963 where the Union troops defeated the traitors of the Confederacy. Yet despite that win, the Union was still facing great challenges.

For example, the infamous New York Draft Riots took place just weeks after the Battle of Gettysburg. For five days, those opposed to the federal conscription law rioted and killed hundreds—especially Black Americans the mob targeted after first focusing on government installations—and caused millions in property damage. In fact, it would take 4,000 federal troops—many of whom had fought in Gettysburg—to put down the riots and regain control of New York City.

And--as Lincoln knew when calling for “a Day of Thanksgiving”--the Civil War was still far from over. Just a month before his Thanksgiving proclamation, the Union forces suffered a stunning defeat in the Battle of Chickamauga in Georgia--the second bloodiest battle of the Civil War. One of the Confederate Generals, along with Braxton Bragg, who led that victory was Nathan Bedford Forrest — who after the war become the first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. But we were told the Civil War was about “State’s rights” not about racism, just as we were told the 2024 election was really about the prices of eggs—not sexism and racism.

Lincoln, however, cautiously seeing victory on the horizon and seeking to give hope, offered a proclamation to the nation urging people to be grateful. The Proclamation noted, “In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity…” with the President then touting successes of the nation and the Union military.

Lincoln continued, “I do, therefore, invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a Day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens.”

While it was clear Lincoln was focused on those states that remained in the Union—and not the traitors of the Confederacy—he did use the Proclamation to appeal to the better angels of all. Lincoln offered his hope that “the Almighty” would “heal the wounds of the nation, and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility, and union.”

However, the Civil War would rage on for three more years. Many point to April 9, 1865, when General Robert E. Lee surrendered his Confederate troops to the Union’s Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House, Virginia as the end of the war. However, the final hostilities concluded in August 1866, long after Lincoln had been assassinated by a Confederate sympathizer who had advocated for slavery. (Although if Fox News was around at the time, they would’ve claimed racism played no role in the assassination--rather the killer was simply upset with inflation.)

Today, we are thankfully not locked in a Civil War. Yet still the famous words Lincoln uttered during this war--and just days before the Thanksgiving holiday called for in his proclamation--come to mind. That is when Lincoln travelled to Gettysburg to deliver on November 19, 1863, what was to be one of his most famous speeches: The Gettysburg Address.

To honor those who died in that battle defending the Union, he began by speaking of our “nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” But then added, “Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.”

He concluded by resolving “that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

The question of whether our “government of the people, by the people, for the people” survives is again upon us. We are faced with a President in Donald Trump, who openly admires dictators, attempted a coup and incited the Jan. 6 terrorist attack to remain in power despite losing the 2020 election. He is a convicted felon who has vowed to weaponize the government to punish critics from the media to political figures he has dubbed “the enemy from within.” And this morally bankrupt, adjudicated rapist is flanked by wealthy billionaires like Elon Musk who are not bashful in seeking to turn America into an oligarchy akin to what Putin has in Russia where rich allies are made wealthier--and critics are punished or disappear.

Yet still I’m hopeful. My hope comes from the millions on our side--and more immediately, from people like you who are part of our community. People who will not be silent in the face of Trump and his fascist designs. Thank you to all who have remained engaged in this struggle. The next four years will likely be more challenging than we can even imagine. Alone, we would not be able to stop what is coming. But together, we have a fighting chance. And that is why I’m grateful.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family!

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For those needing a little help navigating through Thanksgiving, below is my interview of Dr. Dawn Davis—a developmental psychologist and my sister. Holiday gatherings-as Dawn notes—can be stressful any year given unresolved traumas can be triggered. But this year we have the added stressor of Trump:

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Need a quick laugh?

Then check out the Thanksgiving edition of "What Just Happened?!" featuring my guests activist Tara Dublin and comedian Wali Collins.

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