The Times devoted enormous coverage to the centennial of Abraham Lincoln’s birth. Most of it is fairly predictable: Stories of Lincoln’s political career, his days as a lawyer, his boyhood, photographs and some memorial poems that are heartfelt but don’t translate to our era. These pages are perhaps most valuable to demonstrate how Lincoln was viewed a century ago.

And then a surprise. The Times published a special section on Los Angeles’ African American community using the Emancipation Proclamation as a point of departure. The section includes profiles of black professionals, civic and religious leaders, prominent women and an account by former slave living in Los Angeles. I frequently fault the city’s mainstream newspapers for ignoring the black community, but in 1909 The Times came through.

A sample:

“The Christianization of Negro savages captured in the jungles of Africa and their elevation to the priceless boon of American citizenship is the greatest missionary achievement in the annals of the last half-dozen centuries. And yet the parties engaged in this scheme were actuated by the most sordid motives that ever degraded the human soul. As I follow the Negro’s struggle upward from barbarism through slavery to civilization and witness the return of Negro missionaries with their lamps all trimmed and burning with the fire of Christian enlightenment, to light up the dark places of their ancestral home, I cannot but exclaim: “God moves in mysterious ways, his wonders to perform.” –J.L. Edmonds, Sawtelle, former slave In the special section on African Americans, The Times asks: “What is the destiny of the American Negro? Whither does he go? Is he to survive or is he to be ground between the upper and nether millstones of time, to be blown as dust on the winds of fate; to disappear as the American Indian is disappearing and as many another race has disappeared since the world began?” And then we have the story below.

Roosevelt, Taft to appear at separate events honoring Lincoln. Roosevelt’s tribute to Lincoln. Pick up your Valentine’s candies at the Pig and Whistle next to City Hall. “When the Norn Mother saw the Whirlwind Hour, Greatening and darkening  as it hurried on…” The tender heart that was always moved by distress. Anecdotes, saws and sayings that made his meaning clear. Who shall worthily tell in 2,000 words what Abraham Lincoln was? The Times publishes the Gettysburg Address with the words “under God.” Here’s an earlier draft, from the Library of Congress, without those words. The Times invites “the Negro people of Los Angeles and Southern California and the great Negro leader Booker T. Washington to speak for themselves.” A directory of black professionals and “Just What the Negro Expects” by T.A. Greene of the Colored YMCA. Lincoln Portraits.

The leading African American women of Los Angeles, starting with Biddy Mason and including poet Eva Carter Buckner. Opportunity of the Negro in America to convert obstacles into opportunities–Booker T. Washington. Robert C. Owens, wealthiest Negro capitalist of Los Angeles. How Negro soldiers fought for the flag, by Lt. Col. Allen Allensworth, retd.