Lynching

President Roosevelt writes Attorney General Bonaparte regarding the federal prison employment situation of Joseph L. Merrell. Merrell was the Sheriff of Carroll County, Georgia in 1901 when he stopped a white mob from lynching a black prisoner, and subsequently lost his reelection bid as a result. Georgia Representative Charles William Adamson brought the situation to Roosevelt’s attention. Roosevelt secured Merrell a position for “$1200 a year as custodian of the grounds of the Federal Prison at Atlanta,” and hopes to get him a raise if he has done well at his job.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-12-17

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

Judge Speer provides historical justification for President Roosevelt’s actions in the Brownsville affair, involving the mass dishonorable discharge of African American soldiers, citing George Washington’s similar discharge of rowdy troops. Speer also mentions the Raid on Deerfield during Queen Anne’s War and the siege of Magdeburg during the Thirty Years’ War. Speer disagrees with Senator Tillman’s assessment that Roosevelt “lynched” the discharged soldiers, as did the editorial boards of several prominent Georgia newspapers.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-01-14

Creator(s)

Speer, Emory, 1848-1918

Statistics on the number of executions and lynchings completed in the United States, organized by year, between 1885 and 1906.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906

Creator(s)

Unknown

Ray Stannard Baker writes to Theodore Roosevelt about the District of Columbia homicide statistics that Roosevelt sent Baker. Baker believes that the rate of lynchings runs in proportion to the number of homicides. Baker also highlights the question of railroad monopolies.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-01-14

Creator(s)

Baker, Ray Stannard, 1870-1946

Ray Stannard Baker thanks President Roosevelt for the commendation regarding his lynching article in McClure’s Magazine and accepts an invitation to lunch with Roosevelt to discuss the railroad problem.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-01-10

Creator(s)

Baker, Ray Stannard, 1870-1946

John Edward Addicks describes to President Roosevelt the behavior of a minister, Robert Arthur Elwood, whose inflammatory rhetoric has led to a lynching, for which he was censored by his presbytery. Addicks says that Elwood, in opposing Addicks’s bid for office, claims to speak for Roosevelt, and he hopes Roosevelt will make a statement disavowing such interference in a local election.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-12-05

Creator(s)

Addicks, John Edward Charles O’Sullivan, 1841-1919

Booker T. Washington tells President Roosevelt that he is glad that The Outlook published the editorial so quickly, and that he is sure it will do a great deal of good.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-10-31

Creator(s)

Washington, Booker T., 1856-1915

A collection of articles about the status of race relations in the United States and the prospect of equal rights for African Americans.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1902-05-17

Creator(s)

Unknown

Silas McBee discusses the citizenship and voting rights of African Americans.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-08-27

Creator(s)

McBee, Silas, 1853-1924

Newspaper article quoting Senator Money on his objection to quarantines. Money also takes issue with President Roosevelt for calling Confederate soldiers anarchists, and for the president’s support of African Americans, concluding that Roosevelt, “hates the South and Southern people.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-11-09

Creator(s)

Unknown

This newspaper excerpt is a letter to the editor of the Evening Post about an editorial discussing President Roosevelt’s views on lynching.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-08-17

Creator(s)

T. E. O. S.

Theodore Roosevelt writes to his sister Anna about recent happenings in Washington. His workload has been light and he and wife Edith have been doing quite a bit of entertaining and socializing. Roosevelt is anxious to continue writing his Winning of the West. He comments on the “lynching of the Italians in New Orleans.”

Collection

Harvard College Library

Creation Date

1891-03-21

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

Uncle Sam holds a paper labeled “Protest against Russian Outrage.” He is standing with his back to a slightly open door revealing a skeleton labeled “Lynchings” and holding a handgun and rope in his closet. He looks at the skeleton, realizing he is caught in a double standard.

comments and context

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1903-07-29

President Roosevelt has “been amazed and indignant at the attitude of the negroes and of shortsighted white sentimentalists as to my action” concerning the Brownsville Affair. He defends his actions to Silas McBee.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-11-27

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

President Roosevelt agrees with Census Director North that a statistical report on crime that Congress directed him to make would be useful. Roosevelt does not think North should exclude any crimes from the report since facts need to be known about all types of crime, namely lynching. Roosevelt expects the statistics to be free from bias.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-11-05

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

President Roosevelt agrees with Representative Fleming about rape and lynching and invites him to visit. 

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-10-14

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

President Roosevelt informs Charles H. Scott that he appointed Judge Thomas Goode Jones knowing that he was a Democrat who had voted against him. He assures Scott that he is satisfied with Jones’ conduct as a judge and that he has “more than borne out” Roosevelt’s hopes.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-11-17

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

President Roosevelt is touched by the letter and enclosed clippings that Silas McBee sent to William Loeb. Roosevelt feels he does not deserve what McBee says, and would like McBee to come have lunch with him again soon.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-11-07

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

President Roosevelt tells William L. Pryor that Governor James Kimble Vardaman and Senator H. D. Money have willfully been misleading in recounting statements he made about lynching. He encloses for Pryor copies of his speeches and letters to prove his actual statements on the matter. Roosevelt says he always makes a point of denouncing the alleged crime that proceeded a lynching in speeches on the subject.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-11-13

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

President Roosevelt thanks Judge Jones for his help during his trip through the South. He wishes Jones could have been present when he spoke about lynching in Arkansas.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-11-01

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919