Your TR Source
Racist poem likely in response to President Roosevelt hosting Booker T. Washington at the White House. A caption with the article states, “Publications like this show something of what is the matter with Missouri.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1902
President Roosevelt informs Joseph Bucklin Bishop that he was amused by the Antis. He thanks Bishop for his comments on Booker T. Washington and expresses sadness at the southern reaction.
1901-10-21
On the occasion of his inauguration, the New York Times re-examines President Roosevelt’s record of the past three years, and asks, can the nation expect an even bolder Roosevelt in the years to come? Roosevelt’s policies and actions of the past three years are subjected to a critical analysis.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-03-04
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
Democrats and Republicans, capitalists, social reformers, political symbols, and others enjoy a summer outing at a park.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1904-08-17
President Roosevelt and Booker T. Washington on a reviewing stand among other officials
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1906-01-12
Theodore Roosevelt thanks Ryerson W. Jennings for his letter and for trying to place Booker T. Washington in contact with Roosevelt. Jennings will see what Roosevelt has to say on the “colored question” in the morning papers, most likely referencing the letter Roosevelt wrote to Julian LaRose Harris on the question of black Southern delegates at the National Progressive Convention, released 1912-08-03 to newspapers.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1912-08-03
Theodore Roosevelt is sorry that Booker T. Washington supports President Taft. Roosevelt explains the failure of the Republican Party to gather the support of African Americans in the South for forty-five years, to the detriment of Southern blacks and whites and the Republican Party itself, culminating in the failure in Chicago in June, presumably referring to the Republican National Convention.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1912-07-30
Theodore Roosevelt responds to Bradley Gilman’s letter and discusses the topics of marriage, divorce, and African Americans as voters and legislative representatives. Roosevelt argues the need for federal government to control marriage, divorce, and polygamy. Roosevelt asserts the need to incorporate African American representatives for the Progressive movement from states like New York, Rhode Island, Maryland, Illinois, Ohio, or Indiana at the Republican National Convention in Chicago. He writes of the inequality faced by African Americans, particularly in the South, and their absence from legislative bodies in Southern states. In his argument, Roosevelt references Booker T. Washington and writes of the Republican Party’s use of uneducated African American representation as a corrupt tactic that won the candidacy for William H. Taft with William Barnes and Simon Guggenheim.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1912-07-24
Theodore Roosevelt sends a letter of thanks to Emmett J. Scott in receipt of minutes from a meeting of The Tuskegee Institute Board of Trustees. Roosevelt expresses regret for being unable to attend the meeting and sends kind regards to Scott and Booker T. Washington.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1912-07-19
Theodore Roosevelt writes Joseph E. Wiley regarding his letter from Booker T. Washington in which he discusses the benefits of constructing a cotton mill.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1912-07-09
Theodore Roosevelt is concerned to hear that Fisk University is in need of financial assistance. Roosevelt agrees with Booker T. Washington in his support of the institution, to ensure that African Americans have the opportunity to obtain education in more areas than industry and agriculture.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-05-24
Theodore Roosevelt agrees to make a presentation on Alfred Mosely’s behalf. Roosevelt writes that the type of education Booker T. Washington is providing for African Americans must also be provided for whites.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-02-17
Theodore Roosevelt is touched by what California civil servant Edgar Williams tells him about Booker T. Washington. Washington, a friend of Roosevelt’s, died the month prior. Roosevelt suggests that Williams would do well to “follow the lead” of Hiram Johnson, with whom Roosevelt finds himself “in most complete sympathy” regarding Progressivism. In the years following, Roosevelt was no longer a sympathizer of Johnson, his former vice-presidential running mate, who was increasingly an isolationist regarding United States involvement in the World War.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1916-01-19
President Roosevelt sends his sympathies to Emmett J. Scott, a head administrator at the Tuskegee Institute, on the death of Booker T. Washington. Roosevelt offers to provide aid to ensure that the Tuskegee Institute continues to operate.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1915-11-17
During his presidency, Theodore Roosevelt did meet with Booker T. Washington to discuss the appointment of Judge Thomas Goode Jones, but he was not going to appoint Jones solely on Washington’s recommendation. The dinner with Washington created a scandal even though Roosevelt had previously socialized with African Americans. The dinner was a mistake as it was certain to be misunderstood. Roosevelt misjudged the intellectual and moral state of Southern whites and African Americans.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1915-11-20
President Roosevelt thanks President-Elect Taft for his warm letter, and effuses praise of Taft’s inauguration speech. Roosevelt suggests appointing William Loeb during the Senate recess to prevent Representative Charles N. Fowler of New Jersey from exercising power before he leaves office.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1909-02-26
President Roosevelt relates to President-elect Taft that there is no truer friend of African Americans than Booker T. Washington. His advice is so reasonable that following it “never gives cause for just criticism by the white people.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1909-01-20
President Roosevelt writes Richard Watson Gilder a lengthy refutation of an article in the Evening Post in which William Garrott Brown misconstrues his actions in the Republican Party. Namely, Brown accuses Roosevelt of neglecting Republicans in the South and of doing a poor job of making nominations to local offices and positions. Roosevelt asserts that where the Republican party is not strong in the South, he has had to appoint Democrats who were quality men, rather than incapable men who are Republicans. Where he believes the party has a chance to compete with Democrats, he does all he can to support it. Roosevelt also writes that he did not use his influence on officers to get William H. Taft the nomination, but rather Taft was nominated because Roosevelt’s policies were popular, and Taft is the man who will continue those policies. Roosevelt believes that Brown is either ignorant or willfully ignorant of a number of facts.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-11-16
President Roosevelt outlines and refutes the falsehoods in Alfred Holt Stone’s Studies in the American Race Problem. He tells John Graham Brooks that he judges a work’s reliability by seeing what it says about a subject he is familiar with, and then deciding if he can trust it on things that he does not know as much about. He explains that Stone is spreading falsehoods about the so-called “referee” system in the Southern states, especially Mississippi. Roosevelt points out that the practice was common with presidents before him, and that it is necessary in areas where the Republican party does not have a strong enough presence to provide good appointees to positions. He also discusses his handling of the case of African American postmistress Minnie M. Geddings Cox, who was forced by an angry mob to resign her position and leave town.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-11-13