Black History Month: Theodore Roosevelt and Booker T. Washington
Booker Taliaferro Washington was a prominent African-American educator, author and orator in the last decade of the 19th century and the early part of the 20th century. Presidents of the United States sought his advice on matters affecting the African-American community and he was considered as perhaps the most widely respected leader within the African-American community in his time. He was from the last generation of leaders of his community that were born into slavery and in his time he came to be the leading political voice of the former slaves and their descendants. Washington spoke out against the disenfranchisement of African-Americans in the south and the unfairness of Jim Crow discriminatory laws enacted in the post-Reconstruction Southern states in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Washington was one of the founders of the National Negro Business League. He was based out of the Tuskegee Institute, a historically black college in Alabama. In 1895, when lynchings of African-Americans in the South were at their peak, Washington gave a speech, known as the "Atlanta compromise", which brought him national attention. He argued that progress for African-Americans would be achieved through education and skill in business, rather than by directly challenging the Jim Crow segregation and the disenfranchisement of black voters in the South. He was able to build a nationwide coalition of middle-class African-Americans, church leaders, and white philanthropists and politicians to try and achieve his goals of bettering conditions through education. He also supported court challenges to segregation and restrictions on voter registration, by funding the NAACP.
When Washington's second autobiography was published in 1901 (entitled Up From Slavery), it became a bestseller and seemed to energize the African-American community, its friends and allies. In October of 1901, in his first month as president, Theodore Roosevelt invited Washington to dine with him and his family at the White House. This was not unusual for Roosevelt. When he was Governor of New York, Roosevelt had frequently invited African-American guests to dinner. He sometimes had them stay over at the Governor's Mansion.
Contrary to popular belief, Booker T. Washington was not the first black person to dine at the White House with a President of the United States. In 1798 John Adams had dined in the White House with Joseph Bunel, a representative of the Haitian President, and with Bunel's wife as well. Previously, African-Americans had met with Presidents at the White House, but not had dined with the Chief Executive. Previous visitors included Frederick Douglass and Sojourner Truth, who had met with Abraham Lincoln. Douglass had also met with Presidents Grant, Hayes and Cleveland. At the invitation of First Lady Lucy Hayes, Marie Selika Williams became the first African-American professional musician to appear and perform at the White House.
The following day, the White House released a statement which read: "Booker T Washington of Tuskegee, Alabama, dined with the President last evening". News of Washington's visit drew angry, vicious and blatantly racist responses from the southern press and politicians. Democratic Senator James K. Vardaman of Mississippi complained to the press, "the White House is now so saturated with the odor of nigger that the rats had taken refuge in the stable". The Memphis Scimitar wrote that this was "the most damnable outrage which has ever been perpetrated by any citizen of the United States". The Missouri Sedalia Sentinel published on its front page a poem entitled "Niggers in the White House", which ended suggesting that either the president's daughter should marry Washington or his son one of Washington's relatives. Probably the most offensive response came from Democratic Senator Benjamin "Pitchfork Ben" Tillman of South Carolina said "we shall have to kill a thousand niggers to get them back in their places".
The Northern press was more gracious. They acknowledged Washington's accomplishments and suggested that the dinner was an attempt by Roosevelt to show that he was everybody's president. Bishop Henry Turner said to Washington, "You are about to be the great representative and hero of the Negro race." But even other African-American leaders were critical of Washington. William Monroe Trotter called Washington "a hypocrite who supports social segregation between blacks and whites while he himself dines at the White House".
Regrettably, Roosevelt did not react to the criticism as courageously as might be hoped. The White House responded to the complaints from southern politicians by claiming that the meal had not occurred and that the Roosevelt women had not been at the dinner. Other White House personnel said it was a luncheon not an evening meal. Washington made no comment at the time.
On October 25, 1901, Washington wrote a letter to Roosevelt about the dinner, in which he said:
"I have refrained from writing you regarding the now famous dinner which both of us ate so innocently, until I could get into the South and study the situation at first hand. Since coming here and getting the real contact with the white people, I am convinced of three things: In the first place, I believe that a great deal is being made over the incident because of the elections which are now pending in several of the Southern states; and in the second place, I do not believe that the matter is felt as seriously as the newspapers try to make it appear; and in the third place, I am more than ever convinced that the wise course is to pursue exactly the policy which you mapped out in the beginning; not many moons will pass before you will find the South in the same attitude toward you that it was a few weeks ago. I hardly need make any such suggestion because I know that you are of such a nature that having once decided what is right, nothing will turn you aside from pursuing that course. I hope to write you more fully within a few days on the same subject. I shall be passing through Washington again before very long and shall see you."
Roosevelt did meet with Washington again, but never for a meal. They met during business hours in his office. Roosevelt continued to speak out against lynchings, but took no significant steps to advance the cause of African-American civil rights. In 1906, he approved the dishonorable discharges of three companies of black soldiers regarding their actions during a violent episode in Brownsville, Texas, known as the Brownsville Raid. Roosevelt was widely criticized for the discharges, and Senator Joseph B. Foraker won passage of a Congressional resolution directing the administration to turn over all documents related to the case. The controversy hurt Roosevelt's reputation and diminished his support within the African-American community.
Washington remained as principal of Tuskegee. His health became worse and in the fall of 1915 he collapsed in New York City and was brought home to Tuskegee, where he died on November 14, 1915, at the age of 59. He was buried on the campus of Tuskegee University near the University Chapel. His death is believed to have been from hypertension.
Washington was one of the founders of the National Negro Business League. He was based out of the Tuskegee Institute, a historically black college in Alabama. In 1895, when lynchings of African-Americans in the South were at their peak, Washington gave a speech, known as the "Atlanta compromise", which brought him national attention. He argued that progress for African-Americans would be achieved through education and skill in business, rather than by directly challenging the Jim Crow segregation and the disenfranchisement of black voters in the South. He was able to build a nationwide coalition of middle-class African-Americans, church leaders, and white philanthropists and politicians to try and achieve his goals of bettering conditions through education. He also supported court challenges to segregation and restrictions on voter registration, by funding the NAACP.
When Washington's second autobiography was published in 1901 (entitled Up From Slavery), it became a bestseller and seemed to energize the African-American community, its friends and allies. In October of 1901, in his first month as president, Theodore Roosevelt invited Washington to dine with him and his family at the White House. This was not unusual for Roosevelt. When he was Governor of New York, Roosevelt had frequently invited African-American guests to dinner. He sometimes had them stay over at the Governor's Mansion.
Contrary to popular belief, Booker T. Washington was not the first black person to dine at the White House with a President of the United States. In 1798 John Adams had dined in the White House with Joseph Bunel, a representative of the Haitian President, and with Bunel's wife as well. Previously, African-Americans had met with Presidents at the White House, but not had dined with the Chief Executive. Previous visitors included Frederick Douglass and Sojourner Truth, who had met with Abraham Lincoln. Douglass had also met with Presidents Grant, Hayes and Cleveland. At the invitation of First Lady Lucy Hayes, Marie Selika Williams became the first African-American professional musician to appear and perform at the White House.
The following day, the White House released a statement which read: "Booker T Washington of Tuskegee, Alabama, dined with the President last evening". News of Washington's visit drew angry, vicious and blatantly racist responses from the southern press and politicians. Democratic Senator James K. Vardaman of Mississippi complained to the press, "the White House is now so saturated with the odor of nigger that the rats had taken refuge in the stable". The Memphis Scimitar wrote that this was "the most damnable outrage which has ever been perpetrated by any citizen of the United States". The Missouri Sedalia Sentinel published on its front page a poem entitled "Niggers in the White House", which ended suggesting that either the president's daughter should marry Washington or his son one of Washington's relatives. Probably the most offensive response came from Democratic Senator Benjamin "Pitchfork Ben" Tillman of South Carolina said "we shall have to kill a thousand niggers to get them back in their places".
The Northern press was more gracious. They acknowledged Washington's accomplishments and suggested that the dinner was an attempt by Roosevelt to show that he was everybody's president. Bishop Henry Turner said to Washington, "You are about to be the great representative and hero of the Negro race." But even other African-American leaders were critical of Washington. William Monroe Trotter called Washington "a hypocrite who supports social segregation between blacks and whites while he himself dines at the White House".
Regrettably, Roosevelt did not react to the criticism as courageously as might be hoped. The White House responded to the complaints from southern politicians by claiming that the meal had not occurred and that the Roosevelt women had not been at the dinner. Other White House personnel said it was a luncheon not an evening meal. Washington made no comment at the time.
On October 25, 1901, Washington wrote a letter to Roosevelt about the dinner, in which he said:
"I have refrained from writing you regarding the now famous dinner which both of us ate so innocently, until I could get into the South and study the situation at first hand. Since coming here and getting the real contact with the white people, I am convinced of three things: In the first place, I believe that a great deal is being made over the incident because of the elections which are now pending in several of the Southern states; and in the second place, I do not believe that the matter is felt as seriously as the newspapers try to make it appear; and in the third place, I am more than ever convinced that the wise course is to pursue exactly the policy which you mapped out in the beginning; not many moons will pass before you will find the South in the same attitude toward you that it was a few weeks ago. I hardly need make any such suggestion because I know that you are of such a nature that having once decided what is right, nothing will turn you aside from pursuing that course. I hope to write you more fully within a few days on the same subject. I shall be passing through Washington again before very long and shall see you."
Roosevelt did meet with Washington again, but never for a meal. They met during business hours in his office. Roosevelt continued to speak out against lynchings, but took no significant steps to advance the cause of African-American civil rights. In 1906, he approved the dishonorable discharges of three companies of black soldiers regarding their actions during a violent episode in Brownsville, Texas, known as the Brownsville Raid. Roosevelt was widely criticized for the discharges, and Senator Joseph B. Foraker won passage of a Congressional resolution directing the administration to turn over all documents related to the case. The controversy hurt Roosevelt's reputation and diminished his support within the African-American community.
Washington remained as principal of Tuskegee. His health became worse and in the fall of 1915 he collapsed in New York City and was brought home to Tuskegee, where he died on November 14, 1915, at the age of 59. He was buried on the campus of Tuskegee University near the University Chapel. His death is believed to have been from hypertension.