Woodrow Wilson and race

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Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924) was a prominent American scholar and politician who served 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 with concern to racial equality.^[1]

Several historians have spotlighted examples in the public record of Wilson's racist policies and political appointments, such as the segregationists in his Cabinet.^[2][3][4] Other sources claim Wilson defended segregation on "scientific" grounds in private and describe him as a man who “loved to tell racist 'darky' jokes about black Americans.”^{[5][6]: 103}

Family and early life[]

Thomas Woodrow Wilson 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.^[7] 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.^[8]

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 and hearing a passerby announce with disgust that Abraham Lincoln had been elected president and that a war was coming.^[9][10]

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 the lost cause mythology.^[11] At Princeton, Wilson used his authority to actively discourage the admission of African-Americans.^[1]

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 Birth of a Nation, a film that portrayed the Ku Klux Klan as a benevolent force.^{[11]: 518–519} 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.... [Ellipsis in the original.] In the villages the negroes were the office holders, men who knew none of the uses of authority, except its insolences."

"....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.'" [Ellipses 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." [Ellipsis in the original.]

However, Wilson had harsh words about the gap between the original goals of the KKK and what it evolved into.^[12]

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 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.^[13]

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 describes himself as an opponent of both slavery and the Confederacy, though based solely on the grounds that neither would in the long term proof 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."^[14] 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."^[14]

President of Princeton[]

In 1902, the board of trustees for Princeton University selected Wilson to be the school's next president.^[15] Wilson invited only one African-American guest (out of an estimated 150) to attend his installation ceremony, Booker T. Washington.^[16] 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 he and his wife, Ellen, the evening following the event.^[17]

Wilson appointed the first Jew and the first Roman Catholic to the faculty, and helped liberate the board from domination by conservative Presbyterians.^[18] 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.^[1] 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 such as Howard University, but by the early 1900s, virtually all Ivy League schools had begun admitting small numbers of black students.^[19] In the years leading up to Wilson 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.^[20][21]

In 1903, Theodore Roosevelt appointed William Crum, an African-American Republican, as a customs officer for the port of Charleston, South Carolina. 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" and that President Roosevelt "would put a 'coon' in it."^[22]

Wilson served as president of Princeton from 1902-1910; 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 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."^[23] 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.^[24] Princeton college did not admit another black student until 1947,^[25] becoming the last Ivy League institution to racially integrate.^[26][27]

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.^[28][29] On June 26, 2020, Princeton University removed Wilson's name from its public policy school due to his "racist thinking and policies."^[30] 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.^[31]

1912 Presidential Election[]

Following a brief but highly praised stint as the Governor of New Jersey from 1910-1912, Wilson became the surprise Democrat nominee for president in 1912. The 1912 Presidential Election was incredibly unique; the Republican incumbent, William Howard Taft, narrowly secured his party's nomination after being challenged for it by former president Theodore Roosevelt. 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 acknowledge 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, 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.^[25]

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 a showing that he was a changed man.^[32]

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^[33] 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 (NAACP) in addition to being the editor and chief of the organization's newspaper, The Crisis, 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, Reverend as well as leader of the National Colored Democratic League and Bishop of the African Zion Church, Alexander Walters.^[25]

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 in 1860.^[34][35] 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 last four races.^[36]

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.^[37] 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 safeguard their basic civil and human rights.^[37]

One of only two Democrats elected to the presidency between 1860-1932 and the first southerner^[1] to be elected president since Zachary Taylor in 1848, Woodrow Wilson was the only former subject of the Confederacy to ever serve as President. Wilson's election was celebrated by southern segregationists.^[1]

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.^[38] William Trotter said that to the black community, the incoming President Wilson was seen as a "second coming of Abraham Lincoln."^[39] 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 South before moving later in life.^[40] 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.^[41] 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.^[42] Their effects would be felt throughout Wilson's presidency.^[43]

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.^[44] 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,^[45] 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.^[46][47] Wilson flatly refused to even consider African-Americans for appointments in the South. Since 1863, the U.S. mission to Haiti and Santo Domingo 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.^{[48][49][50][51][52]}

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; a regression that continued under President William Howard Taft.^[53] While this trend has been pointed to by Wilson apologists such as Berg, the discrepancy between these three administrations is extreme.^[54] 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.^[55] Furthermore, prominent African-American activists including W.E.B. DuBois described the federal bureaucracy as being effectively devoid of significant racist discrimination prior to Wilson;^[56] other contemporary sources record no noticeable instances of segregation within the federal civil service prior to Wilson.^[4][57]

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”^[58] and it was also the life blood and foundation of the black middle-class.^[59][60]

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.^[61] In Wilson's first month in office, Postmaster General Albert S. Burleson, a former Democratic congressman from Texas, urged the president to establish segregated government offices.^[4] Wilson did not adopt Burleson's proposal, but he did resolve to give his Cabinet Secretaries discretion to segregate their respective departments.^[62] By the end of 1913, many departments, including the Navy, Treasury, Commerce and UPS, had segregated work spaces, restrooms, and cafeterias.^[4] 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.^[63] 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.^[64]

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.^[65]

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 WWI, 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.”^[66]

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.^[67][4] 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.^[4]

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“.^[33] 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 as unwilling to confront civil rights)^[68] he resolved instead to support Socialist Party candidate Eugene V. Debs. 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.^[37]

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.^[69]

Wilson in turn defended his administration's segregation policy in a July 1913 letter responding to civil rights activist Oswald Garrison Villard, arguing that segregation removed "friction" between the races.^[4] Du Bois, who out of support 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.^[69]

African-Americans in the Armed Forces[]

World War I draft card, the lower left corner to be removed by men of African background to help keep the military segregated

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.^[70] Black officers already serving experienced increased discrimination and were often forced out or discharged on dubious grounds.^[71] Following the entry of the U.S. into WWI, 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.^[72]

German propaganda targeting the African-American troops in WWI

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. Germany published propaganda specifically tailored towards black troops, exploiting their denial of civil rights in the United States based on their race.^[73]

Navy[]

Unlike the army, the U.S. Navy 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.^[74][75] Following Wilson's appointment of Josephus Daniels as Secretary of the Navy in 1913, a system of Jim Crow was swiftly implemented; with ships, training facilities, restrooms, and cafeterias all becoming segregated.^[4] Daniels was an ardent and at time violent white supremacist.^[76] 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.^[77]

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.^[78] 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, 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 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.^[79] 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 ...[discredits] her by that single disloyalty to her standards of law and of rights," though he took no further action.^[80]

In 1919, another series of race riots occurred in Chicago, 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.^[81] As the violence escalated however, the War Department intervened, deploying thousands of federal troops to areas experiencing unrest, including Washington, 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.^[82] No federal prosecutions were pursued against of 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.^[83] 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 the race those involved.^[84] However, the details of the Houston case meant the federal government automatically assumed jurisdiction through the UCMJ 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.^[85][86][87] 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.^[88][89] Even Wilson's consistent critics such as Du Bois declined to blame him outright, or limited the scope of their criticisms.

Veto of the racial equality proposal[]

Wilson sat as Chairman during the 1919 Paris Peace Conference; as both Chairman and leader of the American delegation, Wilson wielded great power over the negotiations. Unfortunately, many of Wilson's proposals to safeguard world peace and democracy in the post war era, such as the League of Nations, were proving more popular outside of the United States than within.^[90] 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, moved to include in the Charter of the League of Nations and the Treaty of Versailles, a declaration of racial equality. Japan had fought on the side of the allies during WWI and was the only non-white nation of the five major powers (the others being the Great 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:

The equality of nations being a basic principle of the League of Nations, the High Contracting Parties agree to accord as soon as possible to all alien nationals of states, members of the League, equal and just treatment in every respect making no distinction, either in law or in fact, on account of their race or nationality.

Makino Nobuaki, 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."^[91]

For the white Allied nations, such language presented a potential threat to the cultural underpinnings in either their domestic or foreign policies and for some, both. For Wilson, even if it was inline with what his country claimed to stand for, it was repugnant to his personal belief in white racial superiority, an ideology that had guided policy in his administration since he took office.^[92][93] After protracted and at times heated debate a final vote was called; from a quorum of 17, the Racial Equality Amendment passed with 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 Southern and West Coast white Americans, while the British were under heavy diplomatic pressure from Australia and South Africa, which maintained policies such as the White Australia policy but were unable to vote on the proposal. Despite the results, Wilson exercised his power as Chairman and overturned the vote unilaterally. Wilson proceeded to explain that this specific amendment was so divisive and extreme it must have unanimous support in order to pass.^[94]

Wilson's decision, garnered praise from the governments of South Africa, Australia and Great Britain but was poorly received in most of the United States, outside of the American South and West Coast.^[95] Wilson's actions soured relations between the United States and Japan;^[96] pushing the later towards a more militaristic and aggressive foreign policy.^[97]

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 Edward House referred to them.^[98] Though 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 empires of the Central Powers.^[99]

White House screening of The Birth of a Nation[]

Quotation from Woodrow Wilson's History of the American People as reproduced in the film The Birth of a Nation.

During Wilson's presidency, D. W. Griffith's film The Birth of a Nation (1915) was the first motion picture to be screened in the White House.^[100] 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.^[101] The film, while revolutionary in its cinematic technique, glorified the Ku Klux Klan and portrayed blacks 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. Wilson was personally opposed to the Ku Klux Klan; 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.^[102] In terms of Reconstruction, Wilson held the common southern view that the South was demoralized by northern carpetbaggers and that overreach on the part of the Radical Republicans justified extreme measures to reassert democratic, white majority control of Southern state governments.^[6]: 104 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 Wilson wasn't well aware of Dixon's views before the screening.^[103][11]

Though Wilson was not initially critical of the film, he increasingly distanced himself from it as 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^[104] and overcome attempts to block the movie's release by claiming Birth of a Nation was endorsed by the President.^[105] 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."^[106][107] Wilson issued this press release reluctantly however, and under political pressure. Wilson did enjoy the film and in a private correspondence with Griffith congratulated him on a "splendid production."^[108]

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."^[109][11]

Views on white immigrants and other minorities[]

Wilson purportedly lamented the contamination of American bloodlines by the "sordid and hapless elements" coming from southern and eastern Europe.^[110] In spite of his well documented personal prejudices against many non Northern European Protestant ethnicities, neither Wilson the academic nor Wilson the politician seems to have harbored any genuine animus against these groups. Ultimately, though Wilson saw certain cultures as being inferior to others (most notably his own), 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.^[111] This was a recognition that Wilson never extended black Americans.^[6]: 103

Wilson inherited the dilemma of how to best handle the colonies the United States had acquired after the Spanish-American War. Wilson granted Filipinos greater self-government and in 1916 signed the Jones Act, promising the Philippines independence in thirty years.^[112] In 1917, Wilson signed the Second Jones Act, granting greater self-government to Puerto Rico and granting statutory citizenship to Puerto Ricans.^[113]

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 following the outcome of the war) ratify binding treaties, obligating them to protect the rights of minorities, mainly Jews, within their own borders.^[114]

Further dispelling claims he harbored anti-Semitic prejudices, Wilson appointed the first Jewish-American to the Supreme Court, Louis Brandeis.^[115] Wilson did so knowing as both a Jew and staunch progressive, Brandeis would be a divisive nominee who'd face an uphill confirmation.^{[116][117][118]} 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.^{[119][120][121]} 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.^[122][123] A fervent anti-Semite, McReynolds refused to sign opinions by any of his Jewish colleagues on the court.^[124][125]

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, 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 5 years on the bench. Among his reasons for quitting, Clarke cited bullying from McReynolds as at least partial motivation.^[126][127] 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.^[127] 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 however, Wilson purportedly expressed remorse over McReynolds, allegedly calling it his "greatest regret."^[128]

Aftermath[]

Assessment[]

Ross Kennedy writes that Wilson's support of segregation complied with predominant public opinion.^[129] A. Scott Berg argues Wilson accepted segregation as part of a policy to "promote racial progress... by shocking the social system as little as possible."^[130] 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.^[131] Historian Kendrick Clements argues that "Wilson had none of the crude, vicious racism of James K. Vardaman or Benjamin R. Tillman, but he was insensitive to African-American feelings and aspirations."^[132]

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.^[133]

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, has been called by historians an incredibly rare example for the time period of a man devoid racial prejudice.^[134] 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 and Department of the Interior, and numerous blacks were hired in other federal agencies and departments.^[135] Harding proved both politically reluctant and unable to return African Americans to several positions they had traditionally held prior to Wilson's tenure.^[136] Though some improvements took place, Harding did not abolish segregation in federal offices, very much to the disappointment of his black supporters.^[137]

Steps towards a desegregated military did not commence until the late 1940s^[138] and the Wilsonian policy of barring blacks servicemen from in combat remained mostly in place through World War II.^[139] Though African-American employment in the federal government rebounded under Herbert Hoover,^[140] segregation of workspaces and "whites only" hiring did not begin to see serious reversal until the administration of John F. Kennedy in the early 1960s.^{[141][142][143]}

See also[]

• Nadir of American Race Relations
• Civil rights movement (1896–1954)
• W.E.B. DuBois
• Racism in the United States
• Progressive Era

References[]

Further reading[]

• 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): 109-130 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
• 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.
• 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): 452-453 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.
• 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.
• Yellin, Eric S. (2013). Racism in the Nation's Service. doi:10.5149/9781469607214_Yellin. ISBN 9781469607207. S2CID 153118305.