Editing Woodrow Wilson (section)

== Race relations ==
{{Further|Woodrow Wilson and race}}
[[File:Wilson-quote-in-birth-of-a-nation.jpg|thumb|alt="The white men were roused by a mere instinct of self-preservation ... until at last there had sprung into existence a great Ku Klux Klan, a veritable empire of the South, to protect the Southern country."|Quotation from Woodrow Wilson's ''History of the American People'' as reproduced in the film ''[[The Birth of a Nation]]'']]
Wilson was born and raised in the U.S. South by parents who were committed supporters of both slavery and the [[Confederate States of America|Confederacy]]. Academically, Wilson was an apologist for slavery and the [[Redeemers]], and one of the foremost promoters of the [[Lost Cause]] mythology.<ref>{{cite journal|jstor=20799409|title = Birth of a Quotation: Woodrow Wilson and 'Like Writing History with Lightning'|journal=The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era|volume=9|issue=4|pages=509–533|last=Benbow|first=Mark E.|year=2010|doi=10.1017/S1537781400004242|s2cid=162913069}}</ref> 
Wilson was the first Southerner elected president since [[Zachary Taylor]] in [[1848 United States presidential election|1848]] and the only former subject of the Confederacy. Wilson's election was celebrated by [[Racial segregation in the United States|southern segregationists]]. At Princeton, Wilson actively discouraged the admission of African-Americans as students.<ref>O'Reilly, Kenneth (1997). "The Jim Crow Policies of Woodrow Wilson". ''The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education'' (17): 117–121. {{doi|10.2307/2963252}}. {{issn|1077-3711}}. {{JSTOR|2963252}}.</ref> Several historians have spotlighted consistent examples in the public record of Wilson's overtly racist policies and the inclusion of segregationists in his Cabinet.<ref name="Foner">{{cite web |url=http://www.umich.edu/%7eurel/admissions/legal/expert/foner.html |last=Foner|first= Eric |work=The Compelling Need for Diversity in Higher Education |title=Expert Report of Eric Foner |publisher=University of Michigan |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060505002931/http://www.umich.edu/%7Eurel/admissions/legal/expert/foner.html |archive-date=May 5, 2006 }}</ref><ref name=turner-sadler>{{cite book|last=Turner-Sadler |first=Joanne|title=African American History: An Introduction |year=2009 |publisher=Peter Lang|isbn=978-1-4331-0743-6|page=100 |quote=President Wilson's racist policies are a matter of record. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3DHOFExc4qcC&q=African+American+History:+An+Introduction}}</ref><ref name=JNH_Wolgemuth>{{cite journal |title=Woodrow Wilson and Federal Segregation |first=Kathleen L. |jstor=2716036 |last=Wolgemuth |journal=The Journal of Negro History |volume=44 |issue=2 |year=1959 |pages=158–173 |doi=10.2307/2716036 |s2cid=150080604 |issn=0022-2992 }}</ref> Other scholars say Wilson defended segregation as "a rational, scientific policy" in private and describe him as a man who "loved to tell racist 'darky' jokes about black Americans."<ref name=feagin>{{cite book |last=Feagin |first=Joe R. |title=Systemic Racism: A Theory of Oppression |year=2006 |publisher=CRC Press |isbn=978-0-415-95278-1 |page=162 |quote=Wilson, who loved to tell racist 'darky' jokes about black Americans, placed outspoken segregationists in his cabinet and viewed racial 'segregation as a rational, scientific policy'.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=z-v8_BkQ2n8C}}</ref><ref name=Gerstle_p103>{{cite book |last=Gerstle |first=Gary |title=Reconsidering Woodrow Wilson: Progressivism, Internationalism, War, and Peace |editor=John Milton Cooper Jr. |page=103 |year=2008 |publisher=Woodrow Wilson International Center For Scholars |location=Washington, D.C.}}</ref>

During Wilson's presidency, [[D. W. Griffith]]'s pro-[[Ku Klux Klan]] film ''[[The Birth of a Nation]]'' (1915) was the first motion picture to be screened in the [[White House]].<ref>Stokes (2007), p. 111.</ref> Though he was not initially critical of the movie, Wilson distanced himself from it as public backlash mounted and eventually released a statement condemning the film's message while denying he had been aware of it prior to the screening.<ref>Berg (2013), pp. 349–350.</ref><ref>"Dixon's Play Is Not Indorsed by Wilson". ''The Washington Times''. April 30, 1915. p. 6.</ref>

=== Segregating the federal bureaucracy ===
By the 1910s, [[African American]]s had become effectively shut out of elected office. Obtaining an executive appointment to a position within the federal bureaucracy was usually the only option for African-American statesmen. According to Berg, Wilson continued to appoint African-Americans to positions that had traditionally been filled by black people, overcoming opposition from many Southern senators. [[Oswald Garrison Villard]], who later became an opponent of his, initially thought that Wilson was not a bigot and supported progress for black people, and he was frustrated by Southern opposition in the Senate, to which Wilson capitulated. In a conversation with Wilson, journalist John Palmer Gavit came to the realization that opposition to those views "would certainly precipitate a conflict which would put a complete stop to any legislative program."<ref>Berg (2013), pp. 307–311. Quote at p. 307.</ref><ref name="Jacobs & Milkins 2017">{{cite journal |last=Jacobs |first=Nicholas F. |last2=Milkis |first2=Sidney M. |date=October 2017 |title=Extraordinary Isolation? Woodrow Wilson and the Civil Rights Movement |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/studies-in-american-political-development/article/abs/extraordinary-isolation-woodrow-wilson-and-the-civil-rights-movement/2D8FF77CD2F03955D78543C4B66CBB6C |journal=Studies in American Political Development |volume=31 |issue=2 |pages=193–217 |doi=10.1017/S0898588X1700013X |issn=0898-588X |access-date=January 8, 2025}}</ref>

Since the end of Reconstruction, both parties recognized certain appointments as unofficially reserved for qualified African-Americans. Wilson appointed a total of nine African-Americans to prominent positions in the federal bureaucracy, eight of whom were Republican carry-overs. For comparison, William Howard Taft was met with disdain and outrage from Republicans of both races for appointing thirty-one black officeholders, a record low for a Republican president. Upon taking office, Wilson fired all but two of the seventeen black supervisors in the federal bureaucracy appointed by Taft.<ref>{{cite web|title=Missed Manners: Wilson Lectures a Black Leader|url=http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5719/|access-date=February 10, 2021|website=History Matters|publisher=George Mason University}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Stern|first=Sheldon N.|date=August 23, 2015|url=http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/160135|title=Just Why Exactly Is Woodrow Wilson Rated so Highly by Historians? It's a Puzzlement|publisher=Columbia College of Arts and Sciences at the George Washington University|website=History News Network|access-date=December 7, 2020}}</ref> Since 1863, the U.S. mission to Haiti and Santo Domingo was almost always led by an African American diplomat regardless of what party the sitting president belonged to; Wilson ended this half-century-old tradition but continued to appoint Black diplomats, such as [[George Washington Buckner]],<ref>{{cite magazine|url=http://indianahistory.org/digital/api/collection/p16797coll66/id/25/download|title=George Washington Buckner: Politician and Diplomat|last1=Lovett|first1=Bobby L.|last2=Coffee|first2=Karen|magazine=Black History News and Notes|publisher=Indiana Historical Society|issue=17|pages=4–8|date=May 1984|access-date=March 13, 2021}}{{Dead link|date=February 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://history.state.gov/departmenthistory/people/buckner-george-washington|title=George Washington Buckner (1855–1943)|publisher=United States Department of State, Office of the Historian|access-date=August 9, 2022}}</ref> as well as [[Joseph L. Johnson]],<ref name="poli_johnson">{{cite web|url=http://politicalgraveyard.com/bio/johnson5.html|title=Johnson, J.|website=[[The Political Graveyard]]|access-date=December 12, 2019}}</ref><ref name="diplomat_johnson">{{cite web|url=https://history.state.gov/departmenthistory/people/johnson-joseph-lowery|title=Department History – Joseph Lowery Johnson (1874–1945)|publisher=United States Department of State, Office of the Historian|access-date=December 12, 2019}}</ref> to head the mission to [[Liberia]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.accessgenealogy.com/scripts/data/database.cgi?ArticleID=28139&report=SingleArticle&file=Data|title=Indiana Slave Narratives|access-date=March 24, 2009|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120716055416/http://www.accessgenealogy.com/scripts/data/database.cgi?ArticleID=28139&report=SingleArticle&file=Data|archive-date=July 16, 2012|url-status=dead|via=Access Genealogy}}</ref> Since the end of Reconstruction, the federal bureaucracy had been possibly the only career path where African-Americans could experience some measure of equality,<ref>{{cite web|last=Glass|first=Andrew|title=Theodore Roosevelt reviews race relations, Feb. 13, 1905|website=Politico|date=February 13, 2017|url=https://www.politico.com/story/2017/02/theodore-roosevelt-reviews-race-relations-feb-13-1905-234938|access-date=March 13, 2021}}</ref> and was the lifeblood and foundation of the Black middle class.<ref>{{cite web|title=African-American Postal Workers in the 20th Century – Who We Are – USPS|url=https://about.usps.com/who-we-are/postal-history/african-american-workers-20thc.htm#_edn28|access-date=February 10, 2021|publisher=United States Postal Service}}</ref>

Wilson's administration escalated the discriminatory hiring policies and segregation of government offices that had begun under Theodore Roosevelt and continued under Taft.<ref>{{cite journal|jstor=273560|title=The Rise of Segregation in the Federal Bureaucracy, 1900–1930|journal=Phylon|volume=28|issue=2|pages=178–184|last1=Meier|first1=August|last2=Rudwick|first2=Elliott|year=1967|doi=10.2307/273560}}</ref> In Wilson's first month in office, Postmaster General [[Albert S. Burleson]] urged the president to establish segregated government offices.<ref name="wolgemuth">{{cite journal|last=Wolgemuth|first=Kathleen L.|date=April 1959|title=Woodrow Wilson and Federal Segregation|journal=The Journal of Negro History|volume=44|issue=2|pages=158–173|doi=10.2307/2716036 |jstor=2716036|s2cid=150080604 }}</ref> Wilson did not adopt Burleson's proposal but allowed Cabinet secretaries discretion to segregate their respective departments.<ref>Berg (2013), p. 307</ref> By the end of 1913, many departments, including the Navy, Treasury, and Post Office, had segregated work spaces, restrooms, and cafeterias.<ref name="wolgemuth"/> Many agencies used segregation as a pretext to adopt a whites-only employment policy, claiming they lacked facilities for black workers. In these instances, African-Americans employed prior to the Wilson administration were either offered early retirement, transferred, or simply fired.<ref>{{cite book|last=Lewis|first=David Levering|year=1993|title=W. E. B. Du Bois: Biography of a Race 1868–1919|location=New York|publisher=Henry Holt & Company|page=332|isbn=978-1-4668-4151-2}}</ref> At the suggestion of Oklahoma Senator [[Thomas Gore]], Wilson nominated Adam E. Patterson, a Black Democrat from [[Muskogee, Oklahoma]], for the position of [[Register of the Treasury]] in July 1913; Patterson withdrew his name from consideration following opposition from Southern Democratic senators [[James K. Vardaman]] and [[Benjamin Tillman]]. Wilson proceeded to nominate [[Gabe E. Parker]], who was of mixed European and [[Choctaw]] descent, for the position instead, and did not nominate any other Black people for federal office afterwards.<ref name="Jacobs & Milkins 2017"/><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fixBOW3902UC |title=Racism in the Nation's Service: Government Workers and the Color Line in Woodrow Wilson's America |date=<!-- April 22, -->2013 |publisher=University of North Carolina Press |isbn=978-1-4696-0720-7 |editor-last=Yellin |editor-first=Eric S. |pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=fixBOW3902UC&pg=PA81 81]–[https://books.google.com/books?id=fixBOW3902UC&pg=PA112 112] |chapter=Democratic Fair Play: The Wilson Administration in Republican Washington |access-date=January 8, 2025 |chapter-url=https://academic.oup.com/north-carolina-scholarship-online/book/29437/chapter-abstract/245420340}}</ref>

Racial discrimination in federal hiring increased further when after 1914, the [[United States Civil Service Commission]] instituted a new policy requiring job applicants to submit a personal photo with their application. The alleged impetus behind this policy was to guard against applicant fraud; however, only 14 cases of impersonation/attempted impersonation in the application process were uncovered the year prior.<ref>{{cite book |last=Glenn|first=A. L. Sr.|year=1957|title= History of the National Alliance of Postal Employees, 1913–1955|page=91|location=Cleveland|publisher=Cadillac Press Co.}} Citing the December 1937 issue of ''The Postal Alliance''.</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2022 |title=African-American Postal Workers in the 20th Century – Who we are – About.usps.com |url=https://about.usps.com/who/profile/history/african-american-workers-20thc.htm |access-date=2025-01-08 |website=USPS}}</ref> As a federal enclave, Washington, D.C., had long offered African Americans greater opportunities for employment and less glaring discrimination. In 1919, Black veterans returning home to D.C. were shocked to discover [[Jim Crow laws]] had set in; many could not go back to the jobs they held prior to the war or even enter the same building they used to work in due to the color of their skin. [[Booker T. Washington]] described the situation: "I had never seen the colored people so discouraged and bitter as they are at the present time."<ref>{{cite web|last=Lewis|first=Tom|date=November 2, 2015|url=http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/11/woodrow-wilson-racism-federal-agency-segregation-213315|title=How Woodrow Wilson Stoked the First Urban Race Riot|website=Politico|access-date=August 9, 2022}}</ref>

=== African Americans in the armed forces ===
{{Further|Racial segregation in the United States Armed Forces}}
[[File:King, Stoddard WW1 draft card.jpg|thumb|A World War I draft card. The lower left corner could be removed for men of African descent to help keep the military segregated.]]
While segregation had been present in the Army prior to Wilson, its severity increased significantly under his administration. During Wilson's first term, the Army and Navy refused to commission new black officers.<ref>Lewis, p. 332</ref> Black officers already serving experienced increased discrimination and were often forced out or discharged on dubious grounds.<ref>James, Rawn (2013). ''The Double V: How Wars, Protest, and Harry Truman Desegregated America's Military''. New York: Bloomsbury Publishing USA. pp. 49–51. {{ISBN|978-1-60819-617-3}}.</ref> Following the entry of the U.S. into World War I, the War Department drafted hundreds of thousands of black people into the Army, and draftees were paid equally regardless of race. Commissioning of African-American officers resumed but units remained segregated and most all-black units were led by white officers.<ref>Cooke, James J. (1999). ''The All-Americans at War: The 82nd Division in the Great War, 1917–1918''. New York: Praeger. {{ISBN?}}</ref>{{page needed|date=August 2022}}

Unlike the Army, the U.S. Navy was never formally segregated. Following Wilson's appointment of [[Josephus Daniels]] as [[Secretary of the Navy]], a system of Jim Crow was swiftly implemented; with ships, training facilities, restrooms, and cafeterias all becoming segregated.<ref name="wolgemuth"/> While Daniels significantly expanded opportunities for advancement and training available to white sailors, by the time the U.S. entered World War I, African-American sailors had been relegated almost entirely to mess and custodial duties, often assigned to act as servants for white officers.<ref>Foner, Jack D. (1974). ''Blacks and the Military in American History: A New Perspective''. New York: Praeger. p. 124. {{ISBN?}}</ref>

=== Response to racial violence ===
[[File:East St Louis Massacre cartoon, Morris.jpg|thumb|A 1917 political cartoon published in ''[[New York Evening Mail]]'' about the [[East St. Louis riots]] in 1917 with the caption reading, "Mr. President, why not make America safe for democracy?"]]
In response to the demand for industrial labor, the [[Great Migration (African American)|Great Migration]] of African Americans out of the South surged in 1917 and 1918. This migration sparked [[Mass racial violence in the United States|race riots]], including the [[East St. Louis riots]] of 1917. In response to these riots, but only after much public outcry, Wilson asked Attorney General [[Thomas Watt Gregory]] if the federal government could intervene to "check these disgraceful outrages". On the advice of Gregory, Wilson did not take direct action against the riots.<ref>Cooper (2009), pp. 407–408</ref> In 1918, Wilson spoke out against [[lynching in the United States]], stating: "I say plainly that every American who takes part in the action of mob or gives it any sort of continence is no true son of this great democracy but its betrayer, and ... [discredits] her by that single disloyalty to her standards of law and of rights."<ref>Cooper (2009), pp. 409–410</ref>

In 1919, another [[Red Summer of 1919|series of race riots]] occurred in [[Chicago Race Riot of 1919|Chicago]], [[Omaha Race Riot of 1919|Omaha]], and two dozen other major cities in the North. The federal government did not become involved, just as it had not become involved previously.<ref>{{cite book|first1=Walter C.|last1=Rucker|first2=James N.|last2=Upton|title=Encyclopedia of American Race Riots|year=2007|publisher=Greenwood|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=oLoXHHc_uUkC&pg=PA310 310]|isbn=978-0-313-33301-9}}</ref>