Reading: Woodrow Wilson and Race

The…Racial Attitudes and Policies of Woodrow Wilson By Professor William Keyler

            …Woodrow Wilson became the first Southerner elected president since 1848.

…on the issue of race his legacy was, in fact, regressive and has been largely forgotten.

Born in Virginia and raised in Georgia and South Carolina, Wilson was a loyal son of the old South who regretted the outcome of the Civil War.  He used his high office to reverse some of its consequences. 

When he entered the White House a hundred years ago today, Washington was a rigidly segregated town — except for federal government agencies.  They had been integrated during the post-war Reconstruction period, enabling African-Americans to obtain federal jobs and work side by side with whites in government agencies.  Wilson promptly authorized members of his cabinet to reverse this long-standing policy of racial integration in the federal civil service.

Cabinet heads re-segregated facilities such as restrooms and cafeterias in their buildings.  In some federal offices, screens were set up to separate white and black workers.  African-Americans found it difficult to secure high-level civil service positions, which some had held under previous Republican administrations.

A delegation of black professionals…appeared at the White House to protest the new policies.  But Wilson treated them rudely and declared that “segregation is not a humiliation but a benefit, and ought to be so regarded by you gentlemen.”

The novel “The Clansman” by Thomas Dixon – a longtime political supporter, friend and former classmate of Wilson’s– was published in 1905.  A decade later, with Wilson in the White House, cinematographer D.W. Griffith produced a motion picture version of the book, titled “Birth of a Nation.”

 ,,,the silent film denounced the Reconstruction period in the South when blacks briefly held elective office in several states.  It hailed the rise of the Ku Klux Klan as a sign of southern white society’s recovery from the humiliation and suffering to which the federal government…had subjected it after its defeat in the Civil War.  The film depicted African-Americans (most played by white actors in blackface) as uncouth, uncivilized rabble.

While the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) publicly denounced the movie’s blatant appeals to racial prejudice, the president organized a private screening of his friend’s film in the White House for the members of his cabinet and their families.  “It is like writing history with lightning,” Wilson observed, “and my only regret is that it is all so terribly true.

Reading: Campaign Promises

President Wilson’s

Campaign Promises vs. Presidential Reality

The United States must be neutral in fact, as well as in name, during these days that are to try men's souls. We must be impartial in thought, as well as action, must put a curb upon our sentiments, as well as upon every transaction that might be construed as a preference of one party to the struggle before another.”

--Woodrow Wilson, Message to Congress Declaration of Neutrality, August 19, 1914

“I thought that it would suffice to assert our neutral rights…But…neutrality, it now appears, is impracticable… There is one choice we cannot make…we will not choose the path of submission and suffer the most sacred rights of our Nation and our people to be ignored or violated. The wrongs against which we now array ourselves are no common wrongs; they cut to the very roots of human life.”

--Woodrow Wilson, “Address of The President of the United States Delivered at a Joint Session of The Two Houses of Congress,” April 2, 1917 (He was asking for a declaration of war)

Reading: Progressive Reforms

President Wilson’s Progressive Reforms

President Wilson called his ideas for reform “The New Freedom.” They were a collection of laws that were intended to help the economy, stop companies from becoming monopolies, help workers receive fair treatment, and end child labor.

Federal Reserve Act of 1913

            Before Woodrow Wilson became president, the country went through the economic Panic of 1907. The economy started to do poorly, and many people started to believe that the wealthy, such as J.P. Morgan, controlled the nation’s money and economy.

            In 1913, President Wilson argued that it should be the government, and not the banks or the wealthy, which control the nation’s money and economy. The Federal Reserve Act of 1913 allows the government to control the nation’s money and to regulate banks and force them to be safer with people’s money. Many of the ideas of this act are still in use today.

Clayton Antitrust Act

President Wilson supported the Clayton Antitrust Act. The Clayton Antitrust Act gave the government more power to regulate (and sometimes break up) the big trusts and monopolies that were being created. It allowed the government to stop two companies from merging (joining together) if their joining together would create a monopoly. It also stopped businesses from being able to force other companies to give them unfair advantages in price.

Keating-Owen Act

            President Wilson supported the Keating-Owen Act, which allowed the government to regulate child labor. It prevented child workers from being able to work more than 8 hours in a day, and more than 6 days in a week. It was considered a huge in the movement to end child labor, but the Supreme Court later declared the law unconstitutional and it was overturned.

Adamson Act

            President Wilson supported the Adamson Act, which created a maximum 8-hour workday for interstate railroad workers and forced companies to pay them overtime for hours beyond that.

Federal Trade Commission

            President Wilson created the Federal Trade Commission. Its job was to investigate large companies who may be breaking the law and to stop from becoming monopolies, as well as stop any unfair treatment of workers.

Reading: League of Nations

Speech by President Woodrow Wilson September 25th, 1919 (Modified)

My fellow citizens, as I have crossed the continent, I have perceived more and more that men have been busy creating an absolutely false impression of the treaty of peace and the Covenant of the League of Nations.

Reflect, my fellow citizens that the membership of this great League is going to include all the great fighting nations of the world, as well as the weak ones.

And what do they unite for? They enter into a solemn promise to one another that they will never use their power against one another for aggression; that they never will violate the territorial integrity of a neighbor; that they never will interfere with the political independence of a neighbor; that they will abide by the principle that great populations are entitled to determine their own destiny; and that no matter what differences arise between them they will never resort to war without first submitting their differences to the consideration of the council of the League of Nations…

I wish that those who oppose this settlement could feel the moral obligation that rests upon us not to turn our backs on the boys who died, but to see the thing through, to see it through to the end and make good their redemption of the world. For nothing less depends upon this decision, nothing less than liberation and salvation of the world.

Vocabulary Territorial integrity: borders of a country Abide: accept Redemption: save from evil

Context The Treaty of Versailles didn’t include many of Wilson’s 14 Points, and punished Germany more than he wanted. However, it included the creation of a League of Nations, and so President Wilson supported it. When President Wilson returned home from negotiating the Treaty of Versailles, he went all over the country trying to convince people that the U.S. should join the League of Nations. After a long fight, Congress decided not to join the League.