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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-08-27

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

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

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

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

Comments and Context

Whether lynchings of Southern blacks were actually on the rise in this period — and statistics indicate so — publicity about them was on the rise, in magazines and newspapers (traditional and sensationalist press), in novels and plays, and in solemn political cartoons. President Theodore Roosevelt made a particular goal of his administration to publicize and condemn lynchings, and encourage anti-lynching legislation.

Illustration showing an African American family on a small farm. In the background, a group of men, carrying rifles and a length of rope, are heading into a wooded area. Caption: Pete. — Am dis much bettah dan de ole slav’ry days, Uncle Tom? Uncle Tom. — I dunno, zac’ly. In dem times we wuz too valy’ble to be lynched!

comments and context

Comments and Context

This cartoon is notable for several reasons. It is a powerful statement in a national humor magazine when opposition to lynching was controversial, even in many Northern areas. Moreover, the cartoonist Rose O’Neill, a pioneer female cartoonist, was chiefly known for humorous drawings of children and, eventually, her elfin “Kewpies,” cherubic beings who populated books and poems and strips, and spawned an industry of ceramic and plush toys — “Kewpie dolls.”

President Roosevelt requests advice on potentially speaking out on behalf of the Russian Jews.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1903-05-25

William Loeb refers Edward Jay Allen to what President Roosevelt said about the massacre when he received the committee at the White House. No one has done more to condemn or stop lynchings than Roosevelt. Item includes typewritten and shorthand copy.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1903-07-02

President Roosevelt expresses his disgust at lynching and mob violence. The best method to discourage lynching is to ensure that “justice under the forms of law shall be as expeditious and even-handed as possible.” When a community discriminates against someone due to their color, the path is paved for discrimination in other areas.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1903-07-09

Theodore Roosevelt does not want to “fight out” anything with Julian LaRose Harris but wants to discuss matters with him. He acknowledges his position of ease and Harris’s difficulty. When Roosevelt speaks of lynching, he is careful to attack Northerners, not Southerners. The response to Harris’s article makes Roosevelt indignant. He commends Harris for his “most valiant work.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-12-05

Theodore Roosevelt explains to James H. Patton that he wrote his article before the facts of the lynching were known. He sends a letter he received that “amusingly illustrate[s]” Patton’s concern, along with his reply.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-11-27

Theodore Roosevelt does not know about the trial James D. Corrothers refers to. Regarding lynching, he has an article in the current issue of The Outlook.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-11-23