This photograph of a painting shows the second inauguration of Abraham Lincoln as he takes the oath of office as the 16th president of the United States in front of the U.S. Capitol in Washington March 4, 1865. The oath is administered by Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase, a former Ohio governor who had been elected governor in 1855 and re-elected in 1857 with the help of Black votes, thanks to Ohio Supreme Court rulings dating to the 1820s that anyone of mixed race with a preponderance of white blood could vote. It was a standard routinely applied generously in Ohio, simply with a statement that someone was mostly white. (AP Photo)ASSOCIATED PRESS
Black voting power in pre-Civil War Ohio helped elect a governor – and president
by Van Gosse, The Plain Dealer June 4, 2021
