Your TR Source
President Roosevelt is pleased with the letter Judge Speer sent along with the clippings and details of his speech. He is pleased with Speer’s views on promoting social justice regarding race relations, and is upset that some senators are still using their power to undo advancement of African Americans in society.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-01-18
William Morrow asks Assistant Attorney General McReynolds to convince President Roosevelt to tour the South. Morrow does not believe that Roosevelt is advocating social equality with African Americans. Morrow claims that he and others happily associate with African Americans without the question of social equality being raised.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-12-09
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 is shocked and grieved to hear of the death of Father Doyle. Roosevelt has known Doyle since he was Police Commissioner seventeen years ago, when he worked closely with Doyle, Father Casley, and other Paulist Fathers. Roosevelt first discussed the topic of “race suicide” with Doyle, who also felt strongly on the issue. Roosevelt greatly admired Doyle’s work for the betterment of mankind.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1912-08-13
Theodore Roosevelt’s secretary encloses a corrected version of Roosevelt’s remarks at the National Progressive Convention on the “negro question,” referring to the controversy over African American delegates from Southern states. This is the copy that Roosevelt wants Oscar K. Davis to use in the pamphlet he is preparing.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1912-08-13
Theodore Roosevelt’s secretary does not think that Louis Edelman read what Roosevelt had to say on the “race question,” referring to the issue of Southern states sending African American delegates to the National Progressive Convention, so he encloses a copy. The secretary states that all African Americans associated with the Progressive Party endorsed Roosevelt’s position, and that if Edelman reads all Roosevelt has said on the subject, he will also agree.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1912-08-10
President Roosevelt informs Clark Howell of Atlanta, Georgia, that he is surprised and disappointed at the reaction to some of his appointments for federal jobs in the South. Roosevelt says that he will not waver from his actions and that he will not “treat mere color as a permanent bar to holding office.” Roosevelt reminds Howell that he has appointed whites and Africa-Americans to positions in Georgia and South Carolina.
Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal
1903-02-24
President Roosevelt tells Congressman Littauer that he is saddened by the bitter reaction to the visit of Booker T. Washington to the White House on October 16, 1901. Roosevelt asserts that he would rather lose all of his political friends than shirk from having someone like Washington to dinner. The excerpt is followed by a footnote from The Letters of Theodore Roosevelt which provides more context to the famous dinner meeting with Washington.
Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal
1901-10-24
In his review of Josh Hawley’s Theodore Roosevelt: Preacher of Righteousness, Harry N. Lembeck stresses Hawley’s contention that Theodore Roosevelt was always more than just a man of action, and he refers to Roosevelt as “a deep political thinker.” Lembeck relays points from Hawley’s study, including Roosevelt’s desire to greatly strengthen the federal government to insure the rights of Americans in the twentieth century. Lembeck takes issue with Hawley’s focus on race, and with his use of the term “racialism,” and Lembeck admits to Roosevelt’s shortcomings on issues such as condemning and stopping lynching.
John A. Gable provides brief reviews of three books on Theodore Roosevelt and quotes other reviews about Sylvia Jukes Morris’s biography of Edith Kermit Roosevelt. He reviews A. A. Norton’s Theodore Roosevelt, which evaluates Roosevelt as a writer; William M. Gibson’s Theodore Roosevelt Among the Humorists, which looks at Roosevelt’s relationship with William Dean Howells, Mark Twain, and Finley Peter Dunne; and Thomas G. Dyer’s Theodore Roosevelt and the Idea of Race.
Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal
1981
Senator McLaurin describes President Roosevelt’s White House dinner with Booker T. Washington as a customary courtesy and not a breech of inter-racial boundaries and etiquette. A handwritten note by George B. Cortelyou says, “Not used. The President said he did not want anyone to make any explanation for him.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1901-10
Theodore Roosevelt congratulates Winfield Forrest Cozart on being elected, as an African American, in a district where two thirds of the voters are white.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1916-05-16
Carl Schurz thanks President Roosevelt for his kind words concerning his paper on the “negro question.” Responding to Roosevelt’s affirmation that he sometimes accepted Booker T. Washington’s advice about appointments of colored people in the South, Schurz expresses concern that Washington be kept far from such political affairs, to protect his unique mission.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1903-12-29