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This clipping presents a reaction statement to Edward Shepard’s speech in defense of Theodore Roosevelt’s presidency, particularly as regards African Americans.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-09-04
President Roosevelt writes to author J. T. Trowbridge about how much he has enjoyed his work and wishes he could meet him in person. He makes note of Trowbridge’s poem about Prince Henry and Booker T. Washington.
1902-03-13
Trustee Seth Low of the Tuskegee Institute writes to the editor of the Atlanta Constitution, expressing his distress over recent criticism of Booker T. Washington that he has observed spreading in the South. The criticism surrounds Washington’s attendance at a luncheon in a Saratoga Hotel. Low clarifies that while Washington entered and left with John Wanamaker, he was not the escort of anyone in Wanamaker’s party. That said, Low points out that the newspaper reports of the Saratoga incident do not account for differences in race relations between the North and the South.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-08-30
Addison Wimbs encloses an article about “one of Mr. Bingham’s henchmen” who is opposing President Roosevelt’s nomination, but Wimbs assures Roosevelt that Alabama’s delegates will support him at the Republican National Convention.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-02-10
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
Lovell H. Jerome acknowledges receipt of a letter from William Loeb that warned against including President Roosevelt in the Republican Club matter. The Republican Club meeting, attended by Booker T. Washington, Mr. Dunham, and Governor Benjamin B. Odell, covered plans to utilize the forces already organized in the South. Jerome mentions an effort in Kentucky to debar the negro vote.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1903-11-18
The unnamed author faults Senator Arthur P. Gorman for changing his views based on his own political goals. As an example, the author provides contradictory statements Gorman made regarding President Roosevelt’s attitude toward African American rights.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1903-11-01
Collector Thompson had a conference with President Roosevelt at Oyster Bay, New York, regarding the political situation in Alabama. Roosevelt is considering a southern trip to dispel some rumors regarding his attitude towards the South. The author is upset that Roosevelt had given the impression that he would not appoint African Americans to office in the South, but has acted other wise.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1903-09-26
James Sullivan Clarkson encloses documents from the “malcontents in Boston” regarding the anti-Booker T. Washington feud. Clarkson met with Washington and he described the situation in Boston as “pretty bad.” The Guardian, an African American newspaper, and its supporters are likely acting in the interest of the Democratic Party. Clarkson does not believe that Republicans need to worry about the “color question” being an issue next year.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1903-09-23
Elizabeth E. Baker writes to Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt to request used clothing. Baker, a young African American woman, describes being assaulted on a Mississippi trolley car, leaving her with injuries that require her to change her career and move from Mississippi to Atlanta, Georgia.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1903-07-19
James Sullivan Clarkson tells President Roosevelt about his experience at the African American convention the previous week in Louisville. There he encountered a large group that was trying to convince the body to turn a cold shoulder to the President. Clarkson praises Booker T. Washington, who helped raise support for the President.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1903-07-07
Brander Matthews recommends that President Roosevelt read the article by Franklin Henry Giddings on the “American People” in the current issue of the International Quarterly. He writes that Leigh Hunt enjoyed spending an evening with Roosevelt and informs the president that Hunt recently gave a dinner for Booker T. Washington. Matthews is glad that Roosevelt met his old pupil, Steward White.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1903-07-10
Newspaper article attacking Senator Depew for speaking favorably of Booker T. Washington’s work and the industrial education of African Americans.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1903-06
Partial page of The News, with articles titled “A Plea for the President” and “Trophies from the West” highlighted. The former discusses the President’s appointments to political office in the South, which are causing controversy. It includes a portion of a letter from Herman Henry Kohlsaat, editor of the Chicago Record-Herald, asking for fair treatment of the President by Southern newspapers, since the President sincerely intends to build up the government service in the South by appointing qualified officials, regardless of party affiliation. The latter article discusses the public interest in gifts President Roosevelt may have brought back to the White House from his western journey, including live animals.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1903-06-09
John Bigelow conveys an anecdote recorded in his diary from a Thanksgiving dinner in London in 1863 at which Selmar Martin, a former slave, was a guest and gave grace. This was notable because another guest, Robert J. Walker, had strongly supported slavery as a Senator from Mississippi. He then comments on the recent criticism of President Roosevelt’s meeting with Booker T. Washington and suggests that the social status of African Americans “in some parts of the Union” has declined over the last forty years.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1903-02-18
Francis E. Leupp tells President Roosevelt that the Democrats are making it difficult to have the appointments of William Demos Crum confirmed, but he has heard that Senator George C. Perkins will vote to confirm if Roosevelt and Booker T. Washington are in favor of Crum. Leupp also reports that Rollo Ogden is anxious to know what will be done about William Michael Byrne, whose reappointment as district attorney for Delaware was opposed by the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1903-02-05
Albert Shaw supports President Roosevelt’s policies in the South and regards his treatment of the South as “considerate beyond that of any other President.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1903-02-05
Lawrence F. Abbott has spoken with Booker T. Washington on the race problems of the South. Abbott also sends the latest comments from The Outlook about President Roosevelt’s racial policies.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1903-01-31
Silas McBee discussed the race question with Booker T. Washington and has been editorially defending Theodore Roosevelt’s Southern policy.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1903-01-31
Magazine article on President Roosevelt’s appointments of African Americans to government positions.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1903-01-24