One of the worst US Presidents of all time is Woodrow Wilson. The man was the reason for the increased bureaucracy that has taken away the voices of the citizens, sent more US expeditions into foreign nations for the Banana Wars, and segregated the federal government. Segregation disenfranchised the black population as badly nationwide as what was happening in the South. Yet, the black voters said they voted for him. They thought that he would be a voice for them, even though the racist voices that held sway in the South celebrated his running.
Du Bois Letter
W.E.B. Du Bois was one of the leading voices of the black community in the US, even helping found the NAACP. He stood against Booker T. Washington, who believed the best way to handle black freedom was to compromise. He sent a letter to Wilson asking him to be a voice for the black people, as he was a Southerner who was raised in the North, even though he kept Princeton from bringing in Black students.
Here is one excerpt:
We black men by our votes helped to put you in your high position. It is true that in your overwhelming triumph at the polls that you might have succeeded without our aid, but the fact remains that our votes helped elect you this time, and that the time may easily come in the near future when without our 500,000 ballots neither you nor your party can control the government.
True as this is, we would not be misunderstood. We do not ask or expect special consideration or treatment in return for our franchises. We did not vote for you and your party because you represented our best judgment. It was not because we loved Democrats more, but Republicans less and Roosevelt least, that led to our action.
Calmly reviewing our action we are glad of it. It was a step toward political independence,and it was helping to put into power a man who has today the power to become the greatest benefactor of his country since Abraham Lincoln.
We say this to you, sir, advisedly. We believe that the Negro problem is in many respects the greatest problem facing the nation, and we believe that you have the opportunity of beginning a just and righteous solution of this burning human wrong. This opportunity is yours because, while a southerner in birth and tradition, you have escaped the provincial training of the South and you have not had burned into your soul desperate hatred and despising of your darker fellow men.
You start then where no northerner could start, and perhaps your only real handicap is peculiar lack of personal acquaintance with individual black men, a lack which is the pitiable cause of much social misery and hurt. A president of Harvard or Columbia would have known a few black men as men. It is sad that this privilege is denied a president of Princeton, sad for him and his students.
Segregation Happens
Despite such a plea, Wilson still worked to segregate the federal government. This would not have happened under either Taft or Roosevelt, as both worked to better the plight of blacks, though not as some would have liked. Once Wilson started this, the National Independent Political League sent a letter to him and tried to get him to change his mind. This would be the rule of the government until Truman.
Here is part of the letter from the NIPL:
If the segregation is for the first or second reason, the Federal Government thereby puts an insult upon its own citizens, equal by law, unparalleled in the history of any nation since governments were established among men. If the last two are the reasons, the Government deliberately denies equality of citizenship, in violation of the Constitution and makes an inferior and a superior class of citizens. No citizen who is barred because of the prejudice of another citizen can be his equal in citizenship. By subjecting the former to the latter’s prejudice, the Government denies equality. The indignity of such a segregation is indisputable, for the public have a right to draw their own conclusions as to the reason.
None other of the many racial elements of the citizens are thus treated. That they would regard it as an insult and an indignity will not be questioned anywhere. If separate toilets are provided for Latin, Teutonic, Celtic, Slavic, Semitic and Celtic Americans, then and then only would African Americans be assigned to separation without insult and indignity.
The separate eating tables admitted by Secretary of the Treasury McAdoo, likewise means a declaration of a foulness, indecency, disease, rudeness or essential inferiority, by the Government itself, or a decree that these citizens barred from the general tables shall be subjects of the race prejudice of all the others. This means inequality of citizenship.
All this is true of segregation at desks or in rooms, already notorious under the auditors of the Post Office, the Navy, in the Post Office Department, the Bureau of Engraving and elsewhere. Secretary McAdoo admits a rule against “enforced and unwelcome juxtaposition of white and Negro employees.” This is segregation, and of American-American employees at the behest of the prejudice of all other racial classes of employees. It is clear and definite subjection of one element of citizens to the race prejudice of other citizens. It denies equality of citizenship to the former, in fact, unsettles their citizenship altogether.
For the rule is open to abuse and African-American employees are thus exposed to possible discrimination of any kind.
What this basically shows is that people need to have far more consideration of who they vote for. Focusing on one issue will blind people to quite a few others that will be made worse. Cults of Personality votes are almost always bad. Basically, study the actions and not the words of the people running for office, as bad decisions can lead to bad occurrences.
Comments
Post a Comment