Woodrow Wilson is perhaps one of the more famous presidents in our nation's history. He has helped crack down on big business, increased wages for workers and minimized hours for laborers, and guided the US into one of the most brutal wars in history. His approach, called "New Freedom," worked tirelessly to ensure that no small business owners and non-educated laborers were left behind, and this culminated in the Clayton Antitrust Act, protecting labor unions and fair wages. However, one area that Willson should and has been fairly criticized for not cracking down upon was racial segregation.
Wilson's position on segregation was simple: he behaved as a white supremacist in a quiet way, and he outwardly claimed that he advocated for racial segregation in a quite stating "Segregation is not a humiliation but a benefit, and ought
to be so regarded by you gentlemen." He said this in front of a civil rights leader, William Monroe Trotter, who was trying to argue for the desegregation of federal offices that he established earlier in his presidency. This was possible by including lots of Southern Democrats into his cabinet, and these people were responsible for his inability to truly crack down on any of the injustices destroying African American communities for decades since Reconstruction. His own history almost justifies why he took this position. As a Southerner from Virginia, many of the racial inequality issues that plagued black people were, in his eyes, completely normal and justified.
Wilson refused to take a stand on the issue of racial segregation and protect all citizens. But he was also significantly against women's rights. He did not offer to be much of a progressive on any fronts that expanded who were qualified to vote and take an impact in society. In race, he even went so far as to air the film
Birth of a Nation , which glorified the likes of the Ku Klux Klan, the most notorious white supremacist group of the world. He later apologized for airing the film, but again that's not the point. He actually approved of airing this film as a progressive, unlike any president at this time.
Perhaps the worst part about Wilson's policy of segregating the federal government was the precedent that it set for race relations in the near future. By segregating the one unifying department of the government, there is no way for any state or region considering equality and suffrage if the federal government will not support their initiatives. His presidency only increased the lengths needed to truly bring black equality to the forefront of the nation's attention, and it was only until the efforts of the Civil Rights Movement of the 50s-60s that gained suffrage for African Americans.
Sources:
https://www.biography.com/people/woodrow-wilson-9534272
http://www.bu.edu/professorvoices/2013/03/04/the-long-forgotten-racial-attitudes-and-policies-of-woodrow-wilson/
Your post provides a very accurate, insightful, and informative explanation of President Wilson's racism despite the fact that he was a "progressive." Since Wilson, there have also been several other presidents who have either been implicitly or explicitly racist. For example, President Coolidge's handling of the Great Mississippi Flood in 1927 suggested white supremacism because he saved the white communities but flooded the black communities to reduce pressure on the levees. He also signed the Immigration Act of 1924, which severely restricted African and Asian immigration. A more implicit racist was President Eisenhower, who did not endorse Brown v. Board of Education. President FDR also practiced racism. Most notably, he interned hundreds of thousands of Japanese Americans. He also implicitly excluded black people from the New Deal by excluding their most common professions (farmers and domestics). FDR is most similar to Wilson because he was a white supremacist despite being a supposed liberal and progressive.
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