U.S. Vice President Mike Pence sparked a digital uproar on Wednesday, the first day of Black History Month, when he acknowledged Abraham Lincoln for ending slavery.

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Here’s what he said.

By now, you’ve probably realized what’s wrong here — Pence chose to honor a wealthy white man who had a shady relationship with racism for Black History Month.

Twitter users immediately fired back.

A quick glance at responses to Pence’s tweet confirm what we already know: it wasn’t Lincoln who ended slavery, Black-led revolutionary organizing did.

Sure, Lincoln may have submitted the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which formally abolished slavery. But let’s remember that he felt forced to do so in order to preserve the Union.

Take a look at what Lincoln wrote to newspaper mogul Horace Greeley in an 1862 letter.

“If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it. … What I do about Slavery and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save this Union.”

Then there’s his famous 1858 quote from his Fourth Debate with politician Stephen Douglas, to whom he confesses that he’s against equality between races.

“I will say then that I am not, nor ever have been in favor of bringing about in anyway the social and political equality of the white and black races – that I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality.”

Pence’s tweet painted Lincoln in a way that made it seem as if he helped end slavery out of the kindness of his heart, and not out of political necessity. It also entirely left out the contributions of Black abolitionists like Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, John Mercer Langston who were at the forefront of the anti-slavery movement.

Here’s a quick crash history course for those who aren’t familiar with their contributions in the 1840’s and 50’s.

Douglass, a writer and photographer, organized abolitionist uprisings in New York and Massachusetts.

Tubman, an armed defender of slaves fleeing servitude, led thousands of Black slaves to freedom in the North along the famous Underground Railroad.

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Truth, a women’s liberation activist, delivered impassioned anti-abolitionist speeches like “Ain’t I A Woman” and organized Black Union Army troops against slave owners.

Langston, a lawyer and academic, helped hundreds of freed slaves receive an education and get good quality jobs.

Douglass, Tubman, Truth, and Langston are just a handful among the many Black abolitionist revolutionaries who are responsible for ending slavery.

But for Pence, a white politician like Lincoln is the only name worth mentioning.