Newton D. Baker to Woodrow Wilson

I have been much disturbed and my anxiety is growing at the situation in this country among the negroes. The reports of the Military Intelligence Branch of the Army seem to indicate more unrest among them than has existed before for years. Mr. George Foster Peabody has written me, expressing considerable apprehension, his fears being based upon reports of one sort and another which come to him naturally because of his philanthropic relation to questions of negro education.

Last week, a conference called at my suggestion brought together here at Washington some thirty or forty negroes who edit the most influential papers devoted to the interests of their race and two or three men like Dr. Moton of Tuskegee. I had the conference called in order that I might in a very authoritative way deny and disprove some rumors afloat in the country to the effect that negro soldiers were being badly treated in France and were being exposed in places of special danger in order to save the lives of white soldiers. I was able, I think, both from my own observations in France and from very specific cablegrams which I secured from General Pershing, to convince them of the baseless character of these rumors. They all admitted, however, that such stories were being circulated among their people and were to some extent being believed. I think the meeting resulted in a very helpful understanding and that the influence of the negro press is going to be sounder; but at the meeting Dr. Moton spoke with great frankness, admitted that there was unrest among the negroes of the country and that it was chiefly due to the apparently increasing frequency of lynchings of brutal and barbarous character. Every negro at the conference confirmed Moton's observations on this point.

Would it not be wise for you to write to the governor of some State in which a lynching has quite recently taken place a strong letter urging full use of the power of the State to search out and prosecute the offenders, and pointing out the unpatriotic character of these acts of brutality and injustice. Such a letter, if given to the press, would, I am sure, have a wholesome effect. It seems to me that in a spirit of cooperation you might even offer the assistance of the Department of Justice with its agencies of investigation to cooperate with the State authorities, both in the detection and prosecution of offenders. Apparently the negroes of the country feel that Federal agencies alone will be able to deal with such a situation, and, while of course no Federal legislation is likely on the subject, the voluntary and sympathetic cooperation of the Department of Justice would operate as a deterrent and would certainly allay some feeling among the leaders of the negro people.