Woodrow Wilson
Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856February 3, 1924) was an American politician and academic who served as the 28th president of the United States from 1913 to 1921. A member of the Democratic Party, Wilson served as the president of ...
(1856–1924) was the prominent American scholar, who served as president of Princeton University from 1902-1910, governor of New Jersey from 1911-1913 and as the
28th President of the United States from 1913 to 1921. While Wilson's tenure is often noted for progressive achievement, his time in office was one of unprecedented regression in regard to racial equality.
[O'Reilly, Kenneth (1997). "The Jim Crow Policies of Woodrow Wilson". ''The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education'' (17): 117–121. doi:10.2307/2963252. ISSN 1077-3711. JSTOR 2963252]
Several historians have spotlighted examples in the public record of Wilson's racist policies and political appointments, such as the segregationists in his Cabinet.
Other sources note Wilson defended segregation on "scientific" grounds in private, and describe him as a man who "loved to tell racist '
darky' jokes about black Americans."
Family and early life
Thomas Woodrow Wilson
Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856February 3, 1924) was an American politician and academic who served as the 28th president of the United States from 1913 to 1921. A member of the Democratic Party, Wilson served as the president of ...
was born and raised in the American South by parents who supported the
Confederacy. His father,
Joseph Wilson, supported slavery and served as a chaplain with the
Confederate States Army
The Confederate States Army, also called the Confederate Army or the Southern Army, was the military land force of the Confederate States of America (commonly referred to as the Confederacy) during the American Civil War (1861–1865), fighting ...
. Wilson's father was one of the founders of the Southern
Presbyterian Church in the United States (PCUS) after it split from the Northern Presbyterians in 1861 over the issue of secession. Joseph became a minister of the
First Presbyterian Church in Augusta, and the family lived there until 1870.
While it is unclear whether the Wilsons ever owned slaves, the Presbyterian Church, as part of the compensation for his father's services as a pastor, provided slaves to attend to the Wilson family. According to Wilson, his earliest memory was of playing in his front yard as a three year old, hearing a passerby announce with disgust that
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation thro ...
had
been elected president, and that a war was coming.
Wilson's views as an academic
Wilson was an apologist for slavery and the
southern redemption movement; he was also one of the nation's foremost promoters of
lost cause mythology.
At Princeton, Wilson used his authority to actively discourage the admission of
African Americans.
Prior to entering politics, Wilson was one of the most highly regarded academics in America. Wilson's published works and area of scholarship focused on American history. Though this fact received less attention both during and after Wilson's academic career, much of his writings are overtly sympathetic towards slavery, the confederacy and redeemer movements. One of Wilson's books, ''History of the American People'', includes such observations and was used as source material for ''
The Birth of a Nation
''The Birth of a Nation'', originally called ''The Clansman'', is a 1915 American silent epic drama film directed by D. W. Griffith and starring Lillian Gish. The screenplay is adapted from Thomas Dixon Jr.'s 1905 novel and play ''The Clan ...
'', a 1915 film that portrayed the
Ku Klux Klan as a benevolent force.
Quotes from Wilson's ''History of the American People'' used for the movie include:
"Adventurers swarmed out of the North, as much the enemies of one race as of the other, to cozen, beguile and use the negroes.... In the villages the negroes were the office holders, men who knew none of the uses of authority, except its insolences." llipsis in the original.
"....The policy of the congressional leaders wrought…a veritable overthrow of civilization in the South.....in their determination to 'put the white South under the heel of the black South.'" llipses and underscore in the original.
"The white men were roused by a mere instinct of self-preservation.....until at last there had sprung into existence a great Ku Klux Klan, a veritable empire of the South, to protect the southern country." llipsis in the original.
However, Wilson had harsh words about the gap between the original goals of the KKK and what it evolved into.
''Congressional Government'', another highly regarded civic publication of Wilson's, includes a strong condemnation of
Reconstruction era policies. Wilson refers to the time period as being characterized of "Congressional Despotism", a time when both
states' rights
In American political discourse, states' rights are political powers held for the state governments rather than the federal government according to the United States Constitution, reflecting especially the enumerated powers of Congress and the ...
and the system of checks and balances were disregarded. Wilson specifically criticized efforts to protect voting rights for African Americans and rulings by federal judges against state courts that refused to empanel black jurors. According to Wilson, congressional leaders had acted out of idealism, displaying "blatant disregard of the child-like state of the Negro and natural order of life", thus endangering American democracy as a whole.
In his lengthy works on American history, Wilson did not cover the institution of slavery in great detail. However, when he did discuss the issue, his views were apologetic towards the institution, at least as it existed in the rural south during the Antebellum period. Wilson described himself as an opponent of both slavery and the Confederacy, though based solely on the grounds that neither would in the long term prove beneficial for the southern economy. The idea that holding another human being in bondage as chattel was inherently immoral is absent from any of the Wilson's discussion on the subject: to the contrary, Wilson described slavery as a benevolent state for Negros, whose white masters looked after their "comfort and welfare", and "meted out justice fairly."
[Gerstle, 103.] According to Wilson, domestic slaves received "affection and indulgence" from their masters. Though Wilson admits some masters could be neglectful, he maintained that by and large slave owners acted "responsibly and dutifully" towards their inherently "indolent" field slaves, "who often did not earn their keep."
President of Princeton
In 1902, the board of trustees for
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...
selected Wilson to be the school's next president. Wilson invited only one African American guest (out of an estimated 150) to attend his installation ceremony,
Booker T. Washington
Booker Taliaferro Washington (April 5, 1856November 14, 1915) was an American educator, author, orator, and adviser to several presidents of the United States. Between 1890 and 1915, Washington was the dominant leader in the African-American c ...
. Though most accounts agree Wilson respected Washington, he would not allow for him to be housed on campus with a member of the faculty; such arrangements had been made for all of the white guests coming from out of town to attend the ceremony. Wilson also refused to invite Washington to either of the two dinner parties hosted by him and his wife,
Ellen
Ellen is a female given name, a diminutive of Elizabeth, Eleanor, Elena and Helen. Ellen was the 609th most popular name in the U.S. and the 17th in Sweden in 2004.
People named Ellen include:
* Ellen Adarna (born 1988), Filipino actress
* Elle ...
, on the evening following the event.
Wilson appointed the first Jew and the first Catholic to the faculty, and helped liberate the board from domination by conservative Presbyterians. Despite these reforms, and being generally viewed as a success in his administrative role, Wilson used his position at Princeton to exclude African Americans from attendance.
At the time, opportunities for higher education were limited for African Americans; though a handful of mostly elite, Northern schools did admit black students, few colleges and universities accepted black students prior to the twentieth century. Most African Americans able to receive a higher education, did so at
HBCUs
Historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are institutions of higher education in the United States that were established before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with the intention of primarily serving the African-American community. Mo ...
such as
Howard University
Howard University (Howard) is a Private university, private, University charter#Federal, federally chartered historically black research university in Washington, D.C. It is Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, classifie ...
, but by the early 1900s, virtually all
Ivy League schools had begun admitting small numbers of black students. In the years leading up to Wilson's tenure as president of Princeton, the school had taken "baby steps" towards integration, with a small but slowly increasing number of African Americans permitted to study at
the graduate schools in varying capacities. Wilson did not immediately put an end to this practice, but he refused to allow it to extend or expand, and only one African American student would receive a degree during his tenure.
In 1903,
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt Jr. ( ; October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), often referred to as Teddy or by his initials, T. R., was an American politician, statesman, soldier, conservationist, naturalist, historian, and writer who served as the 26t ...
appointed
William Crum, an African American
Republican
Republican can refer to:
Political ideology
* An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law.
** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...
, as a customs officer for
the port of Charleston,
South Carolina
)'' Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no)
, anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind"
, Former = Province of South Carolina
, seat = Columbia
, LargestCity = Charleston
, LargestMetro = ...
. Wilson, like many white Southerners, bitterly opposed Crum's appointment based on his race. During his remarks before a Princeton alumni group, Wilson made a vulgar joke, the punchline of which called Crum "coon", saying that President Roosevelt "would put a 'coon' in it."
Wilson served as president of Princeton from 1902 to 1910; during those eight years his perspective on race does not appear to have evolved; campus facilities remained segregated, and no African Americans were hired as faculty or admitted as undergraduate students during his tenure. In 1909, Wilson received a letter from a young African American man interested in applying to attend Princeton; Wilson had his assistant write back promptly that "it is altogether inadvisable for a colored man to enter Princeton." Wilson eventually came to include in his justification for refusing to admit African-American students that Princeton had never done so in the past, though he knew such claims to be false. By the end of his time as president at Princeton, Wilson had taken steps to erase from the public record that African Americans had ever attended or instructed at Princeton, though neither was true. Princeton college would not admit a single black student until 1947,
[Gerstle, 107.] becoming the last
Ivy League
The Ivy League is an American collegiate athletic conference comprising eight private research universities in the Northeastern United States. The term ''Ivy League'' is typically used beyond the sports context to refer to the eight school ...
institution to racially integrate.
Modern re-assessment
In the wake of the
Charleston church shooting, during a debate over the
removal of Confederate monuments, some individuals demanded the removal of Wilson's name from institutions affiliated with Princeton due to his administration's segregation of government offices. On June 26, 2020, Princeton University removed Wilson's name from its public policy school due to his "racist thinking and policies." The Princeton University Board of Trustees voted to remove Wilson's name from the university's School of Public and International Affairs, changing the name to the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs. The Board also accelerated the retirement of the name of a soon-to-be-closed residential college, changing the name from Wilson College to First College. However, the Board did not change the name of the university's highest honor for an undergraduate alumnus or alumna, The Woodrow Wilson Award, because it was the result of a gift. The Board stated that when the university accepted that gift, it took on a legal obligation to name the prize for Wilson.
1912 presidential election
Following a brief but highly praised stint as the
Governor of New Jersey
The governor of New Jersey is the head of government of New Jersey. The office of governor is an elected position with a four-year term. There is a two consecutive term term limit, with no limitation on non-consecutive terms. The official r ...
from 1910-1912, Wilson became the surprise Democrat nominee for president in 1912. The
1912 presidential election was unique; the Republican incumbent,
William Howard Taft
William Howard Taft (September 15, 1857March 8, 1930) was the 27th president of the United States (1909–1913) and the tenth chief justice of the United States (1921–1930), the only person to have held both offices. Taft was elected pr ...
, narrowly secured
his party's nomination after being challenged for it by former president
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt Jr. ( ; October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), often referred to as Teddy or by his initials, T. R., was an American politician, statesman, soldier, conservationist, naturalist, historian, and writer who served as the 26t ...
. After which, Roosevelt decided he would run anyway and
with his supporters formed
the Progressive Party. In the fifty years prior, Democrats had won the presidency only twice; the split in the GOP made Wilson's candidacy far more viable than originally assumed.
After decades of loyal support, by 1912, many African Americans had grown disillusioned with the Republican Party and its record of failure on civil rights. This view was particularly true with regards to Taft, whose campaign barely acknowledged the black community, in part to avoid alienating southern whites, whom Taft mistakenly believed could finally be won over by a Republican candidate. At first, many prominent African Americans including
Booker T. Washington
Booker Taliaferro Washington (April 5, 1856November 14, 1915) was an American educator, author, orator, and adviser to several presidents of the United States. Between 1890 and 1915, Washington was the dominant leader in the African-American c ...
, lent their support instead to the Progressive Party candidate, Teddy Roosevelt. Roosevelt's own record towards the black community while in office was suspect, however. Roosevelt's standing with the black community, already vulnerable, was irreparably harmed after the Progressive Party endorsed segregation at their 1912 convention.
Though African Americans had increasingly been drawn into the ranks of Democratic Party supporters in regions where the party's Liberal wing was very strong, Wilson's candidacy was initially broadly dismissed out of hand. However, during the 1912 campaign, Wilson, to the surprise of many, appeared highly responsive to the concerns of the black community. In his correspondences with representatives of the black community, Wilson promised to answer their grievances if elected and made a point of promising to be "the President of all Americans." Wilson never expressly renounced his prior views on segregation and race relations, but many took his words and actions – such as receiving black leaders at his home on multiple occasions – as showing that he was a changed man.
Wilson's most active and prominent supporter from the black community in 1912 was scholar and activist
W. E. B. Du Bois, who campaigned enthusiastically on Wilson's behalf. Du Bois endorsed Wilson as a "liberal Southerner", who would deal fairly with Negros
[Du Bois, W. E. B. (1956-10-20). "I Won't Vote". www.hartford-hwp.com. Retrieved February 19, 2021.] and whose economic plan would benefit all Americans. A seasoned political voice within the African American community, Du Bois was a co-founder of the
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E. ...
(NAACP), in addition to being the editor and chief of the organization's newspaper, ''
The Crisis
''The Crisis'' is the official magazine of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). It was founded in 1910 by W. E. B. Du Bois (editor), Oswald Garrison Villard, J. Max Barber, Charles Edward Russell, Kelly Mi ...
'', which he used to attract Negro support to Wilson. By election day, Wilson had won over the support of many of the black community's most prominent and militant leaders, including
William Monroe Trotter
William Monroe Trotter, sometimes just Monroe Trotter (April 7, 1872 – April 7, 1934), was a newspaper editor and real estate businessman based in Boston, Massachusetts. An activist for African-American civil rights, he was an early opponent o ...
and Reverend
John Milton Waldron, as well as leader of the National Colored Democratic League and Bishop of the
African Zion Church,
Alexander Walters
Bishop Alexander Walters (August 1, 1858 – February 2, 1917) was an American clergyman and noted civil rights leader. Born a slave in Bardstown, Kentucky, just before the Civil War, he rose to become a bishop in the African Methodist Episcopal ...
.
Post-election
The 1912 presidential election was a
bitter and contentious contest. Wilson ultimately won, but with only around 42% voters casting their ballot for him, the lowest proportion of the popular vote by a successful candidate since
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation thro ...
in 1860. 1912 is the most recent occasion in which four candidates for president all won more than 5% of the popular vote and the only instance in modern history where three candidates received more than 20%. Wilson was the first Democrat to win the presidency
since 1892, but received fewer votes overall than the Democratic candidate in three of the previous four races.
Arguably the most unique aspect of all is that in 1912, Woodrow Wilson became the first Democrat candidate for president ever to win the black vote.
[Wolgemuth, Kathleen, "Woodrow Wilson's Appointment Policy and the Negro", The Journal of Southern History. Vol. 24, No. 4 (Nov., 1958), pp. 457-471. Published By: Southern Historical Association. www.jstor.org/stable/2954673?seq=1. Retrieved February 19, 2021.] Though few African-Americans were able to vote at the time, it is possible, albeit highly unlikely, that black votes secured Wilson's victory. Du Bois certainly believed as much to be the case, saying so in a letter he wrote to Wilson after he won the election, and stating that all he and his people desired in return for the overwhelming support they gave him was to safeguard their basic civil and human rights.
One of only two Democrats elected to the presidency between 1860-1932, and the first southerner
to be elected president since
Zachary Taylor
Zachary Taylor (November 24, 1784 – July 9, 1850) was an American military leader who served as the 12th president of the United States from 1849 until his death in 1850. Taylor was a career officer in the United States Army, rising to th ...
in
1848
1848 is historically famous for the wave of revolutions, a series of widespread struggles for more liberal governments, which broke out from Brazil to Hungary; although most failed in their immediate aims, they significantly altered the polit ...
, Woodrow Wilson was the only former subject of the Confederacy to ever serve as President. Wilson's election was celebrated by southern
segregationists
Racial segregation is the systematic separation of people into racial or other ethnic groups in daily life. Racial segregation can amount to the international crime of apartheid and a crime against humanity under the Statute of the Internati ...
.
Despite this fact, the African American community generally appeared to be optimistic following Wilson's victory. Du Bois wrote that the black community could finally expect to be dealt with "fairly" because Wilson would not advance
Jim Crow, nor would he dismiss black employees and appointees of the federal government based on their race. According to Du Bois, the incoming President Wilson was a man whose "personality gives us hope" and believes that blacks have a right to be "heard and considered" in the United States. William Trotter said that to the black community, the incoming President Wilson was seen as a "second coming of
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation thro ...
." Trotter, Du Bois and the many other African-Americans who risked their reputations on Wilson's behalf would soon be bitterly disappointed.
Cabinet dominated by Southerners
Although elected to the presidency as the sitting governor of a northern state, Wilson showed himself to be very much a southern president in line with his upbringing. Wilson's first cabinet was predominantly composed of white Southerners, including those who, like the new president himself were raised in the South before moving later in life. At the time, the South was politically dominated by the Democratic Party and contained the only eleven states where Wilson won an outright majority of the vote in during the 1912 presidential election. In effect, Wilson's cabinet and administration, though not exclusively composed of-was dominated by racists. However, an incredible range of ideations was still present; Postmaster General Albert P. Burleson, was devoted to institutionalized segregation, whereas James Clark McReynolds, Wilson's first Attorney General, was a notorious personal though not so much political bigot; Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels was a violent white supremacist, counted among the foremost leaders behind the
Wilmington Massacre.
Their effects would be felt throughout Wilson's presidency.
Exclusion of African Americans from administration appointments
By the 1910s, African Americans had become effectively shut out of elected office. Obtaining an
executive appointment to a position within the federal bureaucracy was usually the only option for African American statesmen. As Wilson named white supremacists to the highest levels of his administration, African Americans were appointments in record low numbers. While it has been claimed Wilson continued to appoint African Americans to positions that had traditionally been filled by blacks, overcoming opposition from many southern senators, such claims deflect most of the truth however. Since the end of Reconstruction, both parties recognized certain appointments as unofficially reserved for qualified African Americans. Wilson appointed a total of nine African Americans to prominent positions in the federal bureaucracy, eight of whom were Republican carry-overs. For comparison, Taft was met with disdain and outrage from Republicans of both races for appointing "a mere thirty-one black officeholders", a record low for a Republican president. Upon taking office, Wilson fired all but two of the seventeen black supervisors in the federal bureaucracy appointed by Taft. Wilson flatly refused to even consider African Americans for appointments in the South. Since 1863, the U.S. mission to Haiti was almost always led by an African American diplomat, regardless of what party the sitting President belonged to; Wilson ended this half-century old tradition, though he did continue appointing black diplomats to head the mission to
Liberia.
Though Wilson's administration dramatically escalated discriminatory hiring policies and the extent of segregation in federal government offices, both of these practices pre-dated his administration and for the first time since Reconstruction, they arguably reached notable levels under President
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt Jr. ( ; October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), often referred to as Teddy or by his initials, T. R., was an American politician, statesman, soldier, conservationist, naturalist, historian, and writer who served as the 26t ...
; a regression that continued under President
William Howard Taft
William Howard Taft (September 15, 1857March 8, 1930) was the 27th president of the United States (1909–1913) and the tenth chief justice of the United States (1921–1930), the only person to have held both offices. Taft was elected pr ...
. While this trend has been pointed to by Wilson apologists such as Berg, the discrepancy between these three administrations is extreme. For example, African American federal clerks who were earning top pay, were twelve times more likely to be promoted (48) than demoted (4) over the course of the Taft administration; in contrast, the same class of black workers was twice as likely to be demoted or fired (22) than promoted (11) during Wilson's first term in office. Furthermore, prominent African American activists including W. E. B. Du Bois described the federal bureaucracy as being effectively devoid of significant racist discrimination prior to Wilson; other contemporary sources record no noticeable instances of segregation within the federal civil service prior to Wilson.
Segregating the federal bureaucracy
Since the end of Reconstruction, the federal bureaucracy had been possibly the only career path where African Americans "witnessed some level of equity" and it was also the life blood and foundation of the black middle class.
Not only were African Americans almost completely excluded from higher level appointments, the Wilson cabinet was dominated by southerners, many of whom were unapologetic
white supremacists
White supremacy or white supremacism is the belief that white people are superior to those of other races and thus should dominate them. The belief favors the maintenance and defense of any power and privilege held by white people. White s ...
. In Wilson's first month in office,
Postmaster General
A Postmaster General, in Anglosphere countries, is the chief executive officer of the postal service of that country, a ministerial office responsible for overseeing all other postmasters. The practice of having a government official responsib ...
Albert S. Burleson, a former Democratic congressman from Texas, urged the president to establish segregated government offices.
Wilson did not adopt Burleson's proposal, but he did resolve to give his Cabinet Secretaries discretion to segregate their respective departments. By the end of 1913, many departments, including the Navy, Treasury, Commerce, and UPS, had segregated work spaces, restrooms, and cafeterias.
Many agencies used segregation as a pretext to adopt whites-only employment policies on the basis that they lacked facilities for black employees; in these instances, African Americans employed prior to the Wilson administration were either offered early retirement, transferred or fired. Since the overwhelming majority of black civilian employees of the federal government worked for either the Treasury, Department of Commerce (mainly for the statistics bureau) or the Postal Service, these measures had a devastating impact on the previously prosperous community of African American federal civil servants.
Discrimination in the federal hiring process increased even further after 1914, when the Civil Service Commission instituted a new policy, requiring job applicants to submit a photo with their application. The Civil Service Commission claimed that the photograph requirement was implemented in order to prevent instances of applicant fraud, even though only 14 cases of impersonation or attempted impersonation in the application process had been uncovered by the commission the previous year.
As a federal enclave, Washington D.C. had long offered African Americans greater opportunities for employment and subjected them to less glaring discrimination. In 1919, black soldiers who returned to the city after they had completed their service in
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, were outraged to find out that Jim Crow was now in effect; they could not return to the jobs which they had held prior to the war, with many of them noting that they couldn't even enter the same buildings which they used to work in. Booker T. Washington, who visited the capital to investigate claims that African Americans had been virtually shut out of the city's bureaucracy, described the situation: “(I) had never seen the colored people so discouraged and bitter as they are at the present time.”
A 2021 study in the ''Quarterly Journal of Economics'' found that Wilson's segregation of the civil service increased the black-white earnings gap by 3.4–6.9 percentage points, as existing black civil servants were driven to lower-paid positions. Black civil servants who were exposed to Wilson's segregationist policies experienced a relative decline in home ownership rates, with suggestive evidence of lasting adverse effects for the descendants of those black civil servants.
Reaction of prominent African Americans
In 1912, despite his southern roots and record at Princeton, Wilson became the first Democrat to receive widespread support from the African American community in a presidential election.
Wilson's African-American supporters, many of whom had crossed party lines to vote for him in 1912, were bitterly disappointed and protested these changes.
For a time, Wilson's most prominent supporter in the black community was scholar and activist,
W. E. B. Du Bois. In 1912, Du Bois came to campaign enthusiastically on Wilson's behalf, endorsing him as a "liberal Southerner".
Du Bois, a seasoned political voice in the African American community, had previously been a Republican, but like many black Americans by 1912, felt the GOP had deserted them, especially during the Taft administration. Like most African-Americans, Du Bois originally dismissed Wilson's candidacy out of hand. After briefly supporting Theodore Roosevelt, (before coming to see his
Bull Moose Party
The Progressive Party was a third party in the United States formed in 1912 by former president Theodore Roosevelt after he lost the presidential nomination of the Republican Party to his former protégé rival, incumbent president William ...
as unwilling to confront civil rights) he resolved instead to support
Socialist Party
Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of t ...
candidate
Eugene V. Debs
Eugene Victor "Gene" Debs (November 5, 1855 – October 20, 1926) was an American socialist, political activist, trade unionist, one of the founding members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), and five times the candidate of the Soc ...
. However, during the 1912 campaign, Wilson, to the surprise of many appeared highly responsive to the concerns of the black community, and promised to answer their grievances if elected. Du Bois remarked that no candidate in recent memory had openly expressed such sentiments and rallied African Americans support for Wilson. After the election, it was hoped by many Wilson would support progressive civil rights reform, including passage of the long sought after
Anti-Lynching Bill. Some expected only modest improvements and still others felt contented that at least Wilson would not regress on civil rights. Following the election Du Bois wrote to Wilson that all he and his people desired in return for the overwhelming support they gave him on Election Day, was safeguard their basic civil and human rights.
These hopes were almost immediately dashed, however. Less than six months into his first term, Du Bois wrote to Wilson again, decrying the damage he had already done to the black community; commenting that the administration had given aid and comfort to every hateful enemy the Negro community knew. Du Bois implored Wilson to change course.
[Lewis, p. 334-335]
Wilson in turn defended his administration's segregation policy in a July 1913 letter responding to civil rights activist
Oswald Garrison Villard
Oswald Garrison Villard (March 13, 1872 – October 1, 1949) was an American journalist and editor of the ''New York Evening Post.'' He was a civil rights activist, and along with his mother, Fanny Villard, a founding member of the NAACP. I ...
, arguing that segregation removed "friction" between the races.
Du Bois, who, out of support for Wilson in 1912, had gone so far as to resign his leadership position in the Socialist Party, wrote a scathing editorial in 1914 attacking Wilson for allowing the widespread dismissal of federal workers for no offense other than their race and decrying his refusal to keep true to his campaign promises to the black community.
African Americans in the Armed Forces
Army
While segregation had been present in the army prior to Wilson, its severity increased significantly following his election. During Wilson's first term, the army and navy refused to commission new black officers. Black officers already serving experienced increased discrimination and were often forced out or discharged on dubious grounds. Following the entry of the U.S. into World War I,
the War Department drafted hundreds of thousands of blacks into the army, and draftees were paid equally regardless of race. Commissioning of African-Americans officers resumed but units remained segregated and most all-black units were led by white officers.
![WWI_German_Propaganda_towards_African-American_Troops](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/22/WWI_German_Propaganda_towards_African-American_Troops.jpg)
During World War I, African American soldiers served with distinction in the trenches, despite attempts by white supremacists in Congress to bar them from serving in combat. An army General Staff report in 1918 stated, "The mass of the colored drafted men cannot be used for combatant troops", and recommended instead that "these colored drafted men be organized in reserve labor battalions." As a result, although Black soldiers were initially deployed to the front in the comparable numbers as white GIs, many were re-assigned to duty away from the front with thousands working unskilled tasks such as
stevedores in the Atlantic ports and common laborers at the camps and in the Services of the Rear in France. Ultimately, one fifth of the black soldiers sent to Europe fought in combat, compared to two-thirds of white soldiers. Blacks comprised 3% of AEF forces but less than 2% of battlefield fatalities.
AEF Commander
General John Joseph Pershing, was a staunch opponent of racial discrimination and took great care to uphold equality in the military. Despite his efforts, black units were consistently neglected and disabused. Kennedy reports "Units of the black
92nd Division particularly suffered from poor preparation and the breakdown in command control. As the only black combat division, the 92nd Division entered the line with unique liabilities. It had been deliberately dispersed throughout several camps during its stateside training; some of its artillery units were summoned to France before they had completed their courses of instruction, and were never fully equipped until after the Armistice; nearly all its senior white officers scorned the men under their command and repeatedly asked to be transferred. The black enlisted men were frequently diverted from their already attenuated training opportunities in France in the summer of 1918 and put to work as stevedores and common laborers." Germany published propaganda specifically tailored towards black troops, exploiting their denial of civil rights in the United States based on their race.
When the AEF first deployed, the allied powers made repeated overtures for American units to be assigned to British or French command to serve as replacements in the lines. Pershing staunchly resisted these attempts, in large part due to apparent willingness of allied commanders to sacrifice the lives of their own soldiers resulting in tremendously high casualties. This was especially true of the French army, whose front-line troops were resisting combat duties to the point of mutiny. However, when the French requested control over several regiments of black combat troops, Wilson overruled Pershing and approved the request. While the black regiments placed under French control served with great distinction and were praised by the French government for their service, the decision to place them under French command resulted in these units suffering some of the highest casualties of American forces in World War I.
The Houston Riot
After America's entry into World War I, the presence and even movement of black soldiers through the segregated south sparked racial tension that at times erupted into violence, the most notable such incident being the
Houston riot of 1917
The Houston riot of 1917 was a mutiny and riot by 156 soldiers from the all-black 24th Infantry Regiment of the United States Army, taking place on August 23, 1917, in Houston, Texas. The incident occurred within a climate of overt hostility f ...
. Following repeated incidents and violence by Houston police,
black soldiers stationed adjacent to the city, possibly acting on unconfirmed rumors a white mob had formed with the purpose of lynching Negroes garrisoned on base, seized arms and munitions from the base armory and preceded to riot across downtown Houston. The alleged white mob was unaccounted for, but many "whites only" businesses were set ablaze or vandalized. HPD were deployed but proved no match for the well armed soldiers. The rioters killed over a dozen whites, including five police officers and a white Army officer who tried to intervene.
In the aftermath, the soldiers suspected of involvement were court-martialed in one of the largest military tribunals in American history; controversy exists to this day as the level of equity it provided. Of over 100 black soldiers convicted, 29 were given death sentences.
Wilson publicly condemned the participants and defended the investigation and court-martials as models of justice and fairness.
While refusing to consider policy changes that may have prevented the riot in the first place, he commuted the sentences of 10 of the condemned soldiers to life in prison. Wilson stated that he affirmed the death sentences of six soldiers because there was "plain evidence" that they "deliberately" engaged in "shocking brutality."
On the other hand, he commuted the remaining sentences because he believed the "lesson" of the lawless riot had already been "adequately pointed." He desired the "splendid loyalty" of African American soldiers be recognized and expressed the hope that clemency would inspire them "to further zeal and service to the country."
Navy
Unlike the army, the
U.S. Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage o ...
was never formally segregated. For over a century prior to Wilson taking office, black sailors had served effectively alongside white sailors; fighting with distinction in every major conflict that called the Navy to action since at least
The War of 1812
The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States, United States of America and its Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous allies against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom ...
.
Following Wilson's appointment of
Josephus Daniels as
Secretary of the Navy
The secretary of the Navy (or SECNAV) is a statutory officer () and the head (chief executive officer) of the Department of the Navy, a military department (component organization) within the United States Department of Defense.
By law, the se ...
in 1913, a system of Jim Crow was swiftly implemented; with ships, training facilities, restrooms, and cafeterias all becoming segregated.
Daniels was an ardent and at times violent white supremacist. While he significantly expanded opportunities for advancement and training available to white sailors, by the time the U.S. entered WWI, African-American sailors had been relegated almost entirely to mess and custodial duties, and were often assigned to act as servants to white officers.
Response to race riots and lynchings
The time period of Wilson's presidency (1913-1921), was the worst era of race based violence in the United States since Reconstruction. In contrast to previous time periods, incidents were not largely confined to South. Between 1917-1921, hundreds of African-Americans were murdered in race riots, most of which took place outside of the former Confederacy.
In response to the demand for industrial labor, the
Great Migration of African Americans out of the South surged in 1917 and 1918. Some attribute this migration as sparking
race riots
An ethnic conflict is a conflict between two or more contending ethnic groups. While the source of the conflict may be political, social, economic or religious, the individuals in conflict must expressly fight for their ethnic group's positi ...
, including the
East St. Louis riots of 1917. In response, but only after much public outcry and pressure, Wilson asked Attorney General
Thomas Watt Gregory
Thomas Watt Gregory (November 6, 1861February 26, 1933) was an American politician and lawyer. He was a progressive and attorney who served as US Attorney General from 1914 to 1919 under US President Woodrow Wilson.
Early life
Gregory was born ...
if the federal government could intervene to "check these disgraceful outrages." However, on the advice of Gregory, Wilson did not take direct action against the riots. In 1918, Wilson spoke out against
lynchings, stating, "I say plainly that every American who takes part in the action of mob or gives it any sort of continence is no true son of this great democracy but its betrayer, and ...
iscreditsher by that single disloyalty to her standards of law and of rights," though he took no further action.
In 1919, another
series of race riots occurred in
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name ...
,
Omaha, and two dozen other major cities across the North. Initially, the federal government once again refused to involve itself, despite appeals from both black and white statesmen. As the violence escalated however, the War Department intervened, deploying thousands of federal troops to areas experiencing unrest, including
Washington
Washington commonly refers to:
* Washington (state), United States
* Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States
** A metonym for the federal government of the United States
** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...
, Omaha, and
Elaine. Federal troops arrived after the worst of the violence had already occurred though they did take measures to restore order and prevent future outbreaks. No federal prosecutions were pursued against those who perpetrated the violence.
The extent, if any, that this second wave of violence and the failure of the federal government to adequately respond, can be attributed to the racial prejudices of Woodrow Wilson is unclear, but fairly weak. The underlying causes of the race riots of the late 1910s vary in specifics but are largely attributable to local labor and economic unrest, an area Wilson is usually considered to have been highly responsive towards. In all of these incidents, though the federal government failed to take corrective action, state and local authorities regularly exhibited clear malice towards the victimized black communities. Some point to the swift and decisive actions against the alleged perpetrators of the
Houston Riot in 1917 as evidence Wilson could and would respond, depending on the race of those involved. However, the details of the Houston case meant the federal government automatically assumed jurisdiction through the
UCMJ
The Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ, 10 U.S.C. §§ 801–946 is the foundation of military law in the United States. It was established by the United States Congress in accordance with the authority given by the United States Constitution ...
and evidence Wilson interfered in the case does not exist. Several major race riots, including the
Tulsa Massacre, took place after Wilson left office and in spite of the Republican
Harding administration's much firmer stance in support of the rights of African-Americans. Wilson was incapacitated by a stroke he suffered in late 1919 and for most of the next year his staff and cabinet acted without direction from the president and avoided taking decisive action or changes to policy. Despite his record of inaction, it is arguably a stretch to hold Wilson accountable for the spike in racial violence during this time considering his mental state and the still limited role expected of the presidency when it came to matters of local unrest. Even Wilson's consistent critics such as Du Bois declined to blame him outright, or limited the scope of their criticisms.
Blocking the racial equality proposal in the Versailles Treaty
Wilson sat as Chairman during the
Paris Peace Conference; as both Chairman and leader of the American delegation, Wilson wielded great power over the negotiations. Many of Wilson's proposals to safeguard world peace and democracy in the post war era, such as
the League of Nations
The League of Nations (french: link=no, Société des Nations ) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference that ...
, were proving more popular outside of the United States than within. It soon became clear that convincing the U.S. Senate to ratify the likely peace terms would be an uphill battle.
The situation became more divisive when the delegation for the
Empire of Japan
The also known as the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan, was a historical nation-state and great power that existed from the Meiji Restoration in 1868 until the enactment of the post-World War II Constitution of Japan, 1947 constitu ...
, moved to include in the
Charter of the League of Nations and the
Treaty of Versailles
The Treaty of Versailles (french: Traité de Versailles; german: Versailler Vertrag, ) was the most important of the peace treaties of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June ...
, a declaration of racial equality. Japan had fought on the side of the allies and was the only non-white nation of the five major powers (the others being Britain, France, the United States and Italy). The first draft of the
Racial Equality Amendment was presented to the Commission on February 13, 1919 and stated:
Makino Nobuaki
Count was a Japanese politician and imperial court official. As Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal of Japan, Makino served as Emperor Hirohito’s chief counselor on the monarch’s position in Japanese society and policymaking. In this capacity, he ...
, of the Japanese delegation, argued that during the war, allied soldiers of different races came together and successfully fought side by side, creating "A common bond of sympathy and gratitude has been established to an extent never before experienced."
From its inception, the proposal proved to be immensely controversial; several newspapers in the United States immediately denounced it while Australian Prime Minister
Billy Hughes (who opposed the proposal) announced at a meeting that "ninety-five out of one hundred Australians rejected the very idea of equality."
[Kajima, Diplomacy of Japan p. 405] The proposal was mostly symbolic in force, as the only change it required would be that signatories would have to treat each other's citizens equally, without regard to race. This did not mean countries could no longer ban or limit immigration from wherever they desired (though many took it to mean as much), but jurisdictions such as
Australia, the United States and
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
would no longer be able to treat permanent residents as legally inferior based on Japanese ancestry. The British delegation, on behalf of Britain's
dominion
The term ''Dominion'' is used to refer to one of several self-governing nations of the British Empire.
"Dominion status" was first accorded to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Newfoundland, South Africa, and the Irish Free State at the 192 ...
s, voiced strong objections to the proposal, while the French, Italian and Greek delegations all expressed enthusiastic support. After protracted and heated debate a final vote was called; from a quorum of 17, the Racial Equality Amendment secured 11 votes in favor, with no delegate from any nation voting no, though there were 6 abstentions, including all 4 from the British and American delegations. The proposal was unpopular with many
White Americans
White Americans are Americans who identify as and are perceived to be white people. This group constitutes the majority of the people in the United States. As of the 2020 Census, 61.6%, or 204,277,273 people, were white alone. This represented ...
(particularly those living in the
West Coast), while the British were under heavy diplomatic pressure from Australia and South Africa, which maintained policies such as the
White Australia policy
The White Australia policy is a term encapsulating a set of historical policies that aimed to forbid people of non-European ethnic origin, especially Asians (primarily Chinese) and Pacific Islanders, from immigrating to Australia, starting i ...
but as dominions were unable to vote on the proposal.
Wilson exercised his power as chairman and ruled the matter required a unanimous vote and therefore had failed. Wilson explained that this specific amendment was so divisive and extreme it must have unanimous support in order to pass. According to Naoko Shimazu, "Wilson perceived a great risk to the future of the League, should the racial equality issue become unmanageable by creating divisions in the plenary session. He tried to calm Japanese nerves by reiterating the importance of equality of nations in the League of Nations. Essentially, what Wilson managed to do through unanimity voting was to place the onus of rejecting the proposal on Britain."
Wilson's actions soured relations between the United States and Japan, weakening Japanese civilian opposition to
Japan's increasing levels of militarism and an aggressive foreign policy.
Though Wilson aggressively championed the
cause of self-determination for many stateless peoples of Eastern Europe, his sympathy did not extend to the "backward countries" of Asia and Africa, as Wilson's chief advisor in Paris,
Colonel House
Edward Mandell House (July 26, 1858 – March 28, 1938) was an American diplomat, and an adviser to President Woodrow Wilson. He was known as Colonel House, although his rank was honorary and he had performed no military service. He was a highl ...
referred to them. However, unlike the other major powers present, Wilson did not attempt to acquire or accept offers for colonial acquisitions as war spoils for the United States, carved from the defeated territories formerly controlled the Central Powers.
White House screening of ''The Birth of a Nation''
![Wilson-quote-in-birth-of-a-nation](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d2/Wilson-quote-in-birth-of-a-nation.jpg)
During Wilson's presidency,
D. W. Griffith's film ''
The Birth of a Nation
''The Birth of a Nation'', originally called ''The Clansman'', is a 1915 American silent epic drama film directed by D. W. Griffith and starring Lillian Gish. The screenplay is adapted from Thomas Dixon Jr.'s 1905 novel and play ''The Clan ...
'' (1915) was the first motion picture to be screened in the
White House
The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in ...
. Wilson agreed to screen the film at the urging of
Thomas Dixon Jr., a Johns Hopkins classmate who wrote the book on which ''The Birth of a Nation'' was based. The film, while revolutionary in its cinematic technique, glorified the
Ku Klux Klan and portrayed black people as uncouth and uncivilized.
Wilson, and only Wilson, is quoted (three times) in the film as a scholar of American history. Wilson made no protest over the misquotation of his words. According to some historians, after seeing the film, Wilson felt Dixon had misrepresented his views. In his book, quoted in the movie, he argued that the reason so many Southerners joined the Klan was desperation brought about by abusive Reconstruction era governments. In terms of
Reconstruction
Reconstruction may refer to:
Politics, history, and sociology
*Reconstruction (law), the transfer of a company's (or several companies') business to a new company
*'' Perestroika'' (Russian for "reconstruction"), a late 20th century Soviet Unio ...
, Wilson held the common southern view that the South was demoralized by northern
carpetbaggers and that overreach on the part of the
Radical Republicans
The Radical Republicans (later also known as "Stalwarts") were a faction within the Republican Party, originating from the party's founding in 1854, some 6 years before the Civil War, until the Compromise of 1877, which effectively ended Recons ...
justified extreme measures to reassert democratic, white majority control of Southern state governments.
Dixon has been described as a "professional racist", who used both his pen and pulpit (as a Baptist minister) to promote white supremacy, and it is highly unlikely that Wilson was not well aware of Dixon's views before the screening.
Though Wilson was not initially critical of the film, he increasingly distanced himself from it as a public backlash began to mount. The White House screening was initially used to promote the film. Dixon was able to attract prominent figures for other screenings, and overcome attempts to block the movie's release by claiming that ''Birth of a Nation'' was endorsed by the President. Not until April 30, 1915, months after the White House screening, did Wilson release to the press a letter his
chief of staff,
Joseph Tumulty, had written on his behalf to a member of Congress who had objected to the screening. The letter stated that Wilson had been "unaware of the character of the play before it was presented and has at no time expressed his approbation of it. Its exhibition at the White House was a courtesy extended to an old acquaintance." Wilson issued this press release reluctantly, however, and under political pressure. Wilson did enjoy the film, and in private correspondence with Griffith, congratulated him on a "splendid production."
Historians have generally concluded that Wilson probably said that ''The Birth of a Nation'' was like "writing history with lightning", but reject the allegation that Wilson remarked, "My only regret is that it is all so terribly true."
Views on European immigrants and other minorities
Wilson briefly succumbed to the widespread prejudice expressed against some Eastern European and Southern European immigrants.
In the last volume of ''A History of the American People'', he wrote of them as coming out "of the lower class from the south of Italy and men of the meaner sort of Hungary and Poland, men out of the ranks where there was neither skill nor intelligence" and described the situation "as if the countries of the south of Europe were disburdening themselves of the more sordid and hapless elements of their population; and they came in numbers which increased from year to year".
Nevertheless, neither Wilson the academic nor Wilson the politician seems to have harbored any genuine animus against these groups.
Later on, after Wilson became president, his speeches revealed appreciation for the contributions of all European immigrants had made to the United States, as well as his belief that their arrival had invigorated American democracy and freedom.
Wilson vetoed
immigration restriction bills twice, saying that "some of the best stuff of America has come out of foreign lands, and some of the best stuff in America is in the men who are
naturalized citizens of the United States
Naturalization (or naturalisation) is the legal act or process by which a non-citizen of a country may acquire citizenship or nationality of that country. It may be done automatically by a statute, i.e., without any effort on the part of the in ...
".
He consistently expressed the belief that all members of the white race could and should be integrated into American society as equals regardless of heritage.
[Gerstle, Gary, "Race and Nation in the Thought and Politics of Woodrow Wilson", 99-102 as.vanderbilt.edu/history/gerstle_publications/Race_and_Nation_In_Thought.pdf. Retrieved February 21, 2021.] This was a recognition that Wilson never extended to black Americans.
Wilson inherited the dilemma of how to best handle the colonies the United States had acquired after the
Spanish–American War
, partof = the Philippine Revolution, the decolonization of the Americas, and the Cuban War of Independence
, image = Collage infobox for Spanish-American War.jpg
, image_size = 300px
, caption = (cloc ...
. Wilson granted
Filipinos
Filipinos ( tl, Mga Pilipino) are the people who are citizens of or native to the Philippines. The majority of Filipinos today come from various Austronesian ethnolinguistic groups, all typically speaking either Filipino, English and/or othe ...
greater self-government and in 1916 signed the
Jones Act, promising the Philippines independence in thirty years. In 1917, Wilson signed the
Jones–Shafroth Act
The Jones–Shafroth Act () —also known as the Jones Act of Puerto Rico, Jones Law of Puerto Rico, or as the Puerto Rican Federal Relations Act of 1917— was an Act of the United States Congress, signed by President Woodrow Wilson on March ...
, granting greater self-government to
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and unincorporated ...
and granting
statutory citizenship to
Puerto Ricans.
Despite his disposition against a racial equality amendment binding on all conference participants; Wilson did insist that Poland and other eastern European countries (whose borders were carved out of the defeated empires of the
Central Powers
The Central Powers, also known as the Central Empires,german: Mittelmächte; hu, Központi hatalmak; tr, İttifak Devletleri / ; bg, Централни сили, translit=Tsentralni sili was one of the two main coalitions that fought in ...
following the outcome of the war) ratify binding treaties, obligating them to protect the rights of minorities, mainly Jews, within their own borders.
Further dispelling claims he harbored anti-Semitic prejudices, Wilson appointed the first
Jewish-American
American Jews or Jewish Americans are American citizens who are Jewish, whether by religion, ethnicity, culture, or nationality. Today the Jewish community in the United States consists primarily of Ashkenazi Jews, who descend from diaspora Je ...
to the Supreme Court,
Louis Brandeis. Wilson did so knowing that as both a Jew and a staunch progressive, Brandeis would be a divisive nominee who would face an uphill confirmation. Brandeis vividly contrasted with Wilson's first appointment, the openly racist and personally belligerent
James McReynolds, who, prior to joining the court, had served as Wilson's first Attorney General. On a personal level, McReynolds was widely seen by his peers as a mean-spirited bigot, whose disrespect was so extreme he was known to at times turn his chair around to face the wall when prominent African-American attorneys addressed the court during oral arguments. A fervent anti-Semite, McReynolds refused to sign opinions by any of his Jewish colleagues on the court.
Although Wilson appointed easily the most overtly intolerant Judge in modern times (if not ever) in the form of McReynolds, his legacy to the Supreme Court was overall more favorable towards racial equality than not. While Brandeis and McReynolds were appointees who cancelled each other out ideologically, Wilson's third appointment to the bench,
John Hessin Clarke
John Hessin Clarke (September 18, 1857 – March 22, 1945) was an American lawyer and judge who served as an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court from 1916 to 1922.
Early life
Born in New Lisbon, Ohio, Clarke was the third and y ...
, was a progressive who aligned himself closely with Brandeis and the Court's liberal wing. This point also requires context, however; whereas Brandeis and McReynolds served until 1939 and 1941 respectively, Clarke resigned from his lifetime appointment in 1922, after barely five years on the bench. Among his reasons for quitting, Clarke cited bullying from McReynolds as at least partial motivation.
["James C. McReynolds". Oyez Project Official Supreme Court media. Chicago Kent College of Law. Retrieved February 20, 2021.] Though the Supreme Court handed down several major civil rights decisions during Wilson's presidency, it was rare for any of these rulings to be made by a narrow or vulnerable majority of the court; many, in fact, were unanimous, and it may have never been the case that the support of either or even both Brandeis and Clarke swung the verdict. In several instances, however, McReynolds was the leading and often lone dissenting opinion.
Ultimately, McReynolds sat on the Court longer than any other Wilson appointee, being both the first and last Wilson nominee on the U.S. Supreme Court. Unlike his other prominent racist appointments, Wilson purportedly expressed remorse over McReynolds, allegedly calling it his "greatest regret."
Aftermath
Assessment
Ross Kennedy writes that Wilson's support of segregation complied with predominant public opinion.
A. Scott Berg
Andrew Scott Berg (born December 4, 1949) is an American biographer. After graduating from Princeton University in 1971, Berg expanded his senior thesis on editor Maxwell Perkins into a full-length biography, ''Max Perkins: Editor of Genius'' (1 ...
argues Wilson accepted segregation as part of a policy to "promote racial progress by shocking the social system as little as possible." The ultimate result of this policy would be an unprecedented expansion of segregation within the federal bureaucracy; with fewer opportunities for employment and promotion open to African Americans than before. Historian
Kendrick Clements argues that "Wilson had none of the crude, vicious racism of
James K. Vardaman or
Benjamin R. Tillman
Benjamin Ryan Tillman (August 11, 1847 – July 3, 1918) was an American politician of the Democratic Party who served as governor of South Carolina from 1890 to 1894, and as a United States Senator from 1895 until his death in 1918. A whi ...
, but he was insensitive to African-American feelings and aspirations."
In an op-ed for ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'', historian
David Greenberg defended Wilson's legacy. He commented that while Wilson harbored racist sentiments, he never "endorsed or admired" the KKK, as has been claimed.
According to Greenberg, the quotes used for ''Birth of a Nation'' lack context and in actuality Wilson publicly decried the Klan as "lawless," "reckless" and "malicious".
Wilson also wrote of the Klan's actions as "brutal crimes" where "the innocent suffered with the guilty; a reign of terror was brought on, and society was infinitely more disturbed than defended."
Wilson's presidency took place decades before the federal government took an active role in promoting civil rights. Since many historian consider Wilson's time in office to be within the decades-long nadir of American race relations, disagreement exists as to his exact role in perpetrating racial discrimination.
Legacy
In some areas, it can be definitively said that it would be decades before black Americans recovered from Wilson's racist policies. Wilson's successor,
Warren Harding
Warren Gamaliel Harding (November 2, 1865 – August 2, 1923) was the 29th president of the United States, serving from 1921 until his death in 1923. A member of the Republican Party, he was one of the most popular sitting U.S. presidents. A ...
, has been called by historians an incredibly rare example for the time period of a man devoid of racial prejudice.
[Anthony (July–August, 1998), ''The Most Scandalous President''] However, Harding found it impossible to turn back much of the adverse racial policies instituted under his predecessor. Harding did appoint African Americans to high-level positions in the
Department of Labor
The Ministry of Labour ('' UK''), or Labor ('' US''), also known as the Department of Labour, or Labor, is a government department responsible for setting labour standards, labour dispute mechanisms, employment, workforce participation, training, a ...
and
Department of the Interior, and numerous blacks were hired in other federal agencies and departments. Harding proved both politically reluctant and unable to return African Americans to several positions they had traditionally held prior to Wilson's tenure. Though some improvements took place, Harding did not abolish segregation in federal offices, very much to the disappointment of his black supporters.
Steps towards a
desegregated military did not commence until the late 1940s under
Harry Truman
Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884December 26, 1972) was the 33rd president of the United States, serving from 1945 to 1953. A leader of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the 34th vice president from January to April 1945 under Franklin ...
,
and the Wilsonian policy of barring black servicemen from combat remained mostly in place through
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
.
Though African American employment in the federal government rebounded under
Herbert Hoover
Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964) was an American politician who served as the 31st president of the United States from 1929 to 1933 and a member of the Republican Party, holding office during the onset of the Gr ...
, segregation of workspaces and "whites only" hiring did not begin to see serious reversal until the administration of
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination ...
in the early 1960s.
See also
*
Nadir of American Race Relations
The nadir of American race relations was the period in African American history and the history of the United States from the end of Reconstruction in 1877 through the early 20th century when racism in the country, especially racism against ...
*
Civil rights movement (1896–1954)
The civil rights movement (1896–1954) was a long, primarily nonviolent action to bring full civil rights and equality under the law to all Americans. The era has had a lasting impact on American society – in its tactics, the increased social ...
*
W.E.B. DuBois
*
Racism in the United States
Racism in the United States comprises negative attitudes and views on race or ethnicity which are related to each other, are held by various people and groups in the United States, and have been reflected in discriminatory laws, practices and ...
*
Progressive Era
The Progressive Era (late 1890s – late 1910s) was a period of widespread social activism and political reform across the United States focused on defeating corruption, monopoly, waste and inefficiency. The main themes ended during Am ...
References
Further reading
* Allerfeldt, Kristofer. "Wilsonian Pragmatism? Woodrow Wilson, Japanese Immigration, and the Paris Peace Conference." ''Diplomacy and Statecraft'' 15.3 (2004): 545-572.
* Blumenthal, Henry. "Woodrow Wilson and the Race Question." ''Journal of Negro History'' 48.1 (1963): 1-21
online* Bradley, Stefan M. "The Southern-Most Ivy: Princeton University from Jim Crow Admissions to Anti-Apartheid Protests, 1794-1969." ''American Studies'' 51.3/4 (2010): 109-13
online
* Breen, William J. “Black Women and the Great War: Mobilization and Reform in the South.” ''Journal of Southern History'' 44#3 (1978), pp. 421–440
online* Curry, George. “Woodrow Wilson, Jan Smuts, and the Versailles Settlement.” ''American Historical Review,'' 66#4, 1961, pp. 968–86
online* Dennis, Michael. "Looking Backward: Woodrow Wilson, the New South, and the Question of Race." ''American Nineteenth Century History'' 3.1 (2002): 77-104.
* Dennis, Michael. "Race and the Southern Imagination: Woodrow Wilson Reconsidered." ''Canadian Review of American Studies'' 29.3 (1999): 109-132.
* Dickinson, Frederick R. "More than a ‘moment’: Woodrow Wilson and the foundations of twentieth century Japan." ''Japanese Journal of Political Science'' 19.4 (2018): 587-599.
* Ellis, Mark. “‘Closing Ranks’ and ‘Seeking Honors’: W. E. B. Du Bois in World War I.” ''Journal of American History'' 79#1 (1992), pp. 96–124
online* Finley, Randy. "Black Arkansans and World War One." ''Arkansas Historical Quarterly'' 49#3 (1990): 249-77. doi:10.2307/40030800.
* Glazier, Kenneth M. "W.E.B. Du Bois' Impressions of Woodrow Wilson." ''Journal of Negro History'' 58.4 (1973): 452-45
online
* Green, Cleveland M. "Prejudices and Empty Promises: Woodrow Wilson’s Betrayal of the Negro, 1910–1919." '' The Crisis'' (1980) 87#9, pp 380–387.
* Hellwig, David J. "The Afro-American Press and Woodrow Wilson's Mexican Policy, 1913-1917." ''Phylon'' 48.4 (1987): 261-270
online* Hemmingway, Theodore. “Prelude to Change: Black Carolinians in the War Years, 1914-1920.” ''Journal of Negro History'' 65#3 (1980), pp. 212–227
online* Jordan, William. “‘The Damnable Dilemma’: African-American Accommodation and Protest during World War I.” ''Journal of American History'' 82#4 (1995), pp. 1562–1583
online* King, Desmond. "The Segregated State? Black Americans and the Federal Government." ''Democratization'' (Spring 1996) 3#1 pp 65–92. Shows that the Republicans in the 1920s did not reverse Wilsonian race policies.
* Lunardini, Christine A. "Standing Firm: William Monroe Trotter's Meetings With Woodrow Wilson, 1913-1914." ''Journal of Negro History'' 64.3 (1979): 244-264
online* O'Reilly, Kenneth (1997). "The Jim Crow Policies of Woodrow Wilson". ''Journal of Blacks in Higher Education'' (17): 117–121. doi:10.2307/2963252. ISSN 1077-3711. JSTOR 2963252
* Osborn, George C. "Woodrow Wilson Appoints a Negro Judge." ''Journal of Southern History'' 24.4 (1958): 481-493
online* Patler, Nicholas. ''Jim Crow and the Wilson administration: protesting federal segregation in the early twentieth century'' (2007).
* Scheiber, Jane Lang, and Harry N. Scheiber. "The Wilson administration and the wartime mobilization of black Americans, 1917–18." ''Labor History'' 10.3 (1969): 433-458.
* Shimazu, Naoko. ''Japan, race and equality: the racial equality proposal of 1919'' (1998)
excerpt* Smith. Shane A. "The Crisis in the Great War: W.E.B. Du Bois and His Perception of African-American Participation in World War I," ''Historian'' 70#2 (Summer 2008): 239–62.
* Wolgemuth, Kathleen L. "Woodrow Wilson and Federal Segregation". ''Journal of Negro History''. 44 (2): 158–173. doi:10.2307/2716036. ISSN 0022-2992. JSTOR 2716036
* Wolgemuth, Kathleen Long. "Woodrow Wilson's Appointment Policy and the Negro." ''Journal of Southern History'' 24.4 (1958): 457-471
online* Yellin, Eric S. "'It Was Still No South to Us'" ''Washington History'' (2009), Vol. 21, p23-48; the Black community in Washington 1861 to 1927.
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{{Race and the United States presidency
Woodrow Wilson
History of racism in the United States