Your TR Source
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.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-11-09
Silas McBee discusses the citizenship and voting rights of African Americans.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-08-27
This newspaper excerpt is a letter to the editor of the Evening Post about an editorial discussing President Roosevelt’s views on lynching.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
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.”
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.
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.
There is a specific context to this cartoon. Only a few months previous, the world recoiled in horror at the Kishinev massacre in the Russian city in Moldova. Approximately 50 murders were committed, and many rapes, all accompanied by vile propaganda campaigns against Jews. It was contrasted to the contemporaneous promise of the Czar to end Antisemitism and other examples of religious prejudice in the Empire.
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!
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.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1903-05-25
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.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1903-07-09
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.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1903-07-02
Theodore Roosevelt is happy to hear from Warrington Dawson and says he looks forward to reading the excerpts he sent of his father, Francis Warrington Dawson’s, writing. Roosevelt says he is “struck by the boldness” of Francis Dawson’s words against lynching. Roosevelt adds that he and Kermit Roosevelt speak of him often.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-12-19
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.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
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.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
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.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-11-23
Theodore Roosevelt informs Joseph L. Merrell that he will not speak to President William H. Taft about any “appointment, retention, or raise or reduction of salary” on his behalf, and believes that Merrell’s commendable past actions on the job speak for themselves.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-08-22
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.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-12-17
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.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-11-27
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.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-11-05
President Roosevelt agrees with Representative Fleming about rape and lynching and invites him to visit.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-10-14
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.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-11-17
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.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-11-13