Your TR Source
The author of this article attacks the idea of “social equality,” and on the idea that race makes one person superior or inferior to another, and argues that “social equality consists logically in adaptability for enjoyable companionship.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-10-27
Advance proof of an editorial by Julian LaRose Harris on the South’s political future, intended for publication in the March issue of Uncle Remus’s Home Magazine. Harris discusses the reasons why white southerners currently vote only for the Democratic Party, and why this has caused a stagnant political landscape that the Republican Party might exploit. Harris supports the disenfranchisement of African American citizens. However, he asserts that the focus on this disenfranchisement in the South has resulted in the diminishing influence of Southern Democrats over national Democratic Party policies and presidential nominations. He suggests that president-elect William H. Taft could encourage more bipartisan voting by white southerners if he heeds their political appointment suggestions and refuses to give federal appointments to African American candidates.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1909-02
Newspaper article that uses George R. Koester’s own articles about three lynchings in Gaston, South Carolina, to cast doubt on Koester’s claims that he did not participate in lynchings.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1901-11-04
Thomas Goode Jones argues that race conflicts have not increased since President Roosevelt took office and will continue no matter who is president. Politicians simply took advantage of Roosevelt’s support for African Americans and his interactions with William Demos Crum and Booker T. Washington. Jones would like to quote from Roosevelt’s letter regarding the peonage cases.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1903-08-03
Arnold White reviews the “deplorable” condition of Russian Jews and claims that a “racial dislike” is behind the conflict between Jews and Russian peasants. The conflict is only held in check by the Russian government.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1903-07-27
Resolutions adopted by the National Afro-American Council, asking President Roosevelt and Congress to pass laws protecting African American constitutional rights and lives.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1903-07-06
The article accuses the people of Indianola, Mississippi, of hypocrisy. The citizens there forced the closure of the local post office because the postmaster was African American. Yet their mail is now delivered from Heathman, Mississippi, by an African American postman hired by the citizens.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1903-07-03
A man wearing a hat labeled “Oregon,” and holding two handguns, gives Chinese men a “Hobson’s choice” or the option of leaving by jumping off a cliff into the sea below (on the right) or staying and being shot to death (on the left). At his feet is a “Treaty with China” torn in half.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1886-02-24
South Carolina Senator Benjamin R. Tillman and Virginia Representative A. C. Braxton, both Southerners, recently delivered speeches in New York. Following Senator Tillman’s speech, in which he spoke derogatorily of African Americans, southern newspapers denied that he represented the views of the South. However, both Representative Braxton’s speech and the reception it received gave a different impression. Braxton denounced the Fifteenth Amendment and heralded the restrictions Southern states have put on voting, ensuring that “the vast sea of ignorant, venial and vicious negroes is now safely and perpetually shut out.” Braxton is well respected in his state and was cheered enthusiastically by southerners who live in New York.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1903-02
African American delegates who were excluded from the Alabama Republican State Convention issue an open letter “To the Republicans of Alabama,” protesting that their exclusion violates both the state and federal constitutions and deserves the “severest condemnation.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1902-09
African Americans are being ignored and discriminated against by southern Republicans. In Alabama, sixteen African American delegates to the state convention were excluded from political recognition. President Roosevelt will need to intervene to prevent southern discrimination from affecting the African American vote in northern states.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1902-09-23
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
A picture indicates that Americans are mistreating Chinese workers in their country, ignoring their contributions to the infrastructure, and making the Chinese outcasts. This angers the Chinese and sparks their peaceful protests of America through boycott.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-08-10
Leonard Phinizy discusses the “southern suffrage plank” of the Republican party, a proposal that would “reduce the representation in Congress of certain southern states who have disfranchised the negro.” Phinizy argues that the Democrats should accept this proposal, because he believes the policy would result in the elimination of black citizens from political participation in the South.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-08
In a letter to the editor, Max Heller criticizes President Roosevelt for inviting Booker T. Washington to the White House, as an example of inappropriate familiarity between the races. Heller defends, however, the right of African Americans to education and uplift, and argues that every man should be judged on his own merits.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-11-17
John Byrne congratulates President Roosevelt on the recent election results. Byrne is sure that Roosevelt will be one of the greatest presidents ever. He writes about the major issues the president must address. Roosevelt’s notes are at the top of page one.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-11-15
This article discusses a quote from Henry S. Barker, a prominent African American in Washington, who lauds how African Americans were treated at the Republican Convention and says that if Theodore Roosevelt is elected president, African Americans will demand that Booker T. Washington be the Republican candidate for vice president in 1908. The article says that Democrats will resent the “threat” made in the letter and that the South should stand together for white supremacy.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-07-28
At a meeting in a Chinese mission, a collection is being taken up, “Contributions received here to save the foreign devils.” Five accompanying vignettes show how the United States is viewed by the Chinese, including “Kentucky feuds,” “Burning Negros at the stake,” “Labor riots,” “Anti-Chinese riots,” and “New York City government” where the Tammany Tiger is shaking down a citizen. A sign on a wall in the mission states, “Help the Heathen.”
In addition to criticizing American bigotry and religious hypocrisy, which Puck frequently did in its cartoons, Pughe’s cartoon here has particular relevance because the Boxer Rebellion was in the news, a matter of much curiosity and concern. The Chinese anti-foreigner insurrection was directed at Christian missionaries, no less than at any other group. Puck saw particular irony in that fact.
President Roosevelt reflects on the combatants and potential outcome of the Russo-Japanese War. He likes the Russians but they have shown “stupendous mendacity” regarding Manchuria and cannot take their proper place until they “gain a measure of civil liberty and self government.” Roosevelt has a higher opinion of the Japanese and is impressed with their rise in becoming a “great civilized nation.” The Japanese have told Roosevelt that their goal is to remove Russia from Manchuria and to turn the territory over to China. However, Roosevelt is also wary of continued Japanese aggression and sees the potential for this aggression to clash with American interests.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-06-13
President Roosevelt defends his appointments of African Americans, particularly the appointment of Dr. William Demos Crum as collector of customs in Charleston, South Carolina. Roosevelt will look into charges that Crum is unfit for the appointment but he will not reject Crum, or anyone else, on the basis of skin color. He denies that “negro domination” enters into the matter.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1902-11-24