Race relations

Newsletter from Janette Miller

Charles M. Miller copies part of a news letter sent by Janette Miller from her missionary post in Angola, Africa. Janette Miller describes the climate, weather, and details the long trip from Lisbon to the village where she lives and works. The men, women, and children she helps to educate and teach Christian ways are also described. Janette Miller ends saying she trusts her African friends and reminds the reader that there are cousins of the tribe she lives with in the United States who are suffering because of what her race did to them.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-06-18

Condition and prospects of the sea islands

Editorial written by Francis Warrington Dawson and published April 22, 1880 in the Charleston News and Courier has been copied. Dawson writes of the conditions on the sea islands of South Carolina as planters have been working to restore the lands. The people of the sea islands reportedly live peacefully and prosperously together, despite Freed people outnumbering White farmers. Dawson states that the “Southern problem” has been solved.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1880-04-22

Letter from Jacob Trieber to Theodore Roosevelt

Jacob Trieber discusses race relations in the South. Trieber describes a situation in which many white people are interested in helping blacks, but also notes that there are also white people of lesser education who seek to keep the black race down. Trieber describes a violent episode, including the arrest of some of the participants. He encourages President Roosevelt to continue offering his help in advancing the cause of the black race.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-02-27

Suffrage limitations in the South

The editorial writer claims that northern newspapers have not presented an accurate account of suffrage in the South. The article discusses how the requirements for voting registration will “disfranchise only the ignorant and the thriftless negroes.” The author notes that there may be some areas where black citizens meeting these qualifications are still refused the vote. He argues that “the remedy for this condition…is not the repeal of the Constitution, but the just and equable enforcement of the Constitution.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-03-12

Wants to accept the challenge

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.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-08

The Negro scholar and “gentleman”

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.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-11-17

Letter from Lyman Abbott to Theodore Roosevelt

Lyman Abbott discusses the desires of leaders in the “New South” to provide opportunities for African Americans while keeping different races of people separate in social settings. Abbott asks President Roosevelt to meet with various southern leaders at the White House in order to show that Roosevelt respects their situation.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-11-18

Patriotic demonstration

A patriotic demonstration will take place on Friday, May 18, and a flag purchased by the senior class of 1917 will be raised at Monroe Colored City Public School. Speeches by people of both races will be given.

Collection

Sagamore Hill National Historic Site

Creation Date

1917-05

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Elihu Root

President Roosevelt summarizes two letters he has received from Oscar K. Davis for Elihu Root. The letters, from Times reporter William Bayard Hale, describe an interview Hale had with German Emperor William II. In the first letter, Hale describes the two-hour interview itself, in which William makes several incendiary statements regarding England, Russia, China, Japan, the United States, and the Catholic Church. In the second letter, Hale reports that after showing the interview to the German Foreign Office and American Ambassador David Jayne Hill, both decided it would be unwise and improper to quote the emperor. Roosevelt told Davis that he strongly discouraged making the interview public. In domestic news, Roosevelt is making a “quiet canvass” of feeling regarding the re-nomination of Charles Evans Hughes for governor of New York.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-08-08

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Will N. Harben

President Roosevelt asks Will N. Harben to lunch with him at the White House so he can explain why Harben cannot make his letter public. Roosevelt hates to say no, especially as he believes in the message of Harben’s book.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-09-24

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Ray Stannard Baker

President Roosevelt invites Ray Stannard Baker to lunch on November 14 so he can explain why Baker cannot use his letter. Roosevelt may need to make an official statement about the Brownsville affair and does not wish for his personal opinions on the matter to be shared.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-09-24

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Will N. Harben

President Roosevelt tells Will N. Harben that he will read his novel with great interest, specifically because it addresses the race question. Roosevelt mentions his displeasure that a recent meeting of African Americans denounced him because of the Brownsville Affair because they should “stand by the enforcement of the law without regard to race.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-09-16

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to John St. Loe Strachey

President Roosevelt thanks John St. Loe Strachey for his letter and comments that both of them agree with the great questions between Great Britain and the United States. Roosevelt worries about the rise of socialism in Britain. He also discusses issues of immigration, particularly comparing the race riots in Vancouver, Canada, with those in San Francisco, California.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-09-09

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Frank Ross McCoy

President Roosevelt asks Frank Ross McCoy to relay his regards to Yosemite park rangers John D. Alger and Archibald C. Leonard, remembering “the two bully camps we had” on a recent camping trip. While Roosevelt sympathizes with McCoy about the bears, he views it as good that they found refuge in Yosemite and Yellowstone National Parks. He agrees with McCoy regarding the Japanese.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-08-19

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Merriman C. Harris

President Roosevelt is glad to hear from Bishop Harris. Roosevelt cannot contemplate war between the United States and Japan, especially since both countries strive to develop the Pacific. He will do what he can to ensure the United States treats Japan and its people fairly. However, large numbers of foreign wage workers create economic pressures.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-08-06

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Hermann Speck von Sternburg

President Roosevelt was impressed with the account of a German military attaché in Japan that German Ambassador Sternburg recently sent him, especially in the assessment that racial tensions are driving relations in the Pacific. Roosevelt looks forward to seeing Sternburg and his wife this weekend.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-08-03

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Booker T. Washington

President Roosevelt looks forward to reading Booker T. Washington’s address to white students.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-07-26

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Sherrard Coleman

President Roosevelt thanks Sherrard Coleman for his nice letter. He tells Coleman that he has felt “intense indignation” at the behavior of Senators Joseph Benson Foraker and Benjamin R. Tillman over the matter in question; they have humiliated themselves by doing “grave damage to the discipline of the army” and have caused “mischief” regarding race relations. He will take up the final matter in Coleman’s letter with General George Bell.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-01-22

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to John M. Taylor

President Roosevelt thanks John M. Taylor for the primer and the spoon. He calls Sequoyah a “national hero,” and expresses pride that so many men “of Indian blood” were in his regiment, particularly Cherokee.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-12-26

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to M. C. Butler

President Roosevelt thanks former Senator Butler for his “commendation of my message,” and appreciates the praise from Sir Hubert. Roosevelt notes that his northern friends are troubling him over the recent military incident in Brownsville, Texas involving the African American 25^th infantry regiment as much as “I ever had with my southern friends over the southern situation.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-12-12