Jim Crow at Washington
Title
Jim Crow at Washington
Creator
Unknown
Identifier
CS29
Date
c. 1914 November
Description
Newspaper article, "Jim Crow Law at Washington."
Source
Library of Congress
Wilson Papers, Series 4, 152A Reel 231, Manuscript Division
Wilson Papers, Series 4, 152A Reel 231, Manuscript Division
Publisher
Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library & Museum
Subject
African-Americans--segregation
Contributor
Althea Cupo
Maria Matlock
Language
English
Provenance
Digital copy acquired from federal archives by previous WWPL Archivist, Heidi Hackford.
Text
JIM CROW LAW AT WASHINGTON
President Wilson, with good cause, resented and rebuked the offensive spokesman of the delegation of negroes who went to the White House to protest against the Administration's policy of segregation in the executive departments at Washington. The wonder is that such a poor representative of his race as the impudent mischief-maker from Boston was permitted the privilege of an interview with the President, and his exclusion for the future is well deserved.
But neither the offensive conduct of his caller nor the President's Justifiable Indignation will dispose of the issue raised by the protesting delegation. Until the Wilson Administration came into power there was no segregation of negro clerks at Washington; there was no necessity for it, there was no demand for it, in short there was no “segregation issue." The trouble began when the Secretary of the Treasury and the Postmaster General, with the aid and encouragement of the former's assistant, John Skelton Williams, gave ear to the agitation of a small group of Southern Democratic office holders and proceeded to fan into flame the fire of race hatred by quietly setting about the segregation of the negro clerks. The Transcript, as soon as the fact leaked out, protested against that procedure on the ground that it was un-American, unfair and unconstitutional. To a protesting delegation who visited the White House more than a year ago, the President promised an investigation of their charge that segregation was being enforced and left upon them the impression that he was wholly out of sympathy with such a scheme.
How at variance with that attitude, appears his confession of yesterday in which the President, for the first time, admits the enforcement of a policy of segregation and seeks to defend it with sort words about the “humanity" of its purpose. Had the conditions at Washington called for any such segregation as this Administration is enforcing, why were Presidents Cleveland, McKinley, Roosevelt and Tatt blind to that necessity? Why was there no demand for It? If, as the President contends, there is nothing political about this discrimination against the negro clerks, why has the enforcement of that policy been so often denied?
The truth is that segregation began soon after Mr. Wilson entered the White House; that it has been completed in at least two departments with his knowledge and his belated and reluctant admission of the fact is as condemnatory as the fact itself is in- defensible. The President's feeble resort to evasive rhetoric about the non-political character of the segregation issue is enough to tax the patience and affront the intelligence of even his heartiest well wisher. The segregation of the negroe clerks is not only political, but it is sectional and partisan, and as unnecessary as unconstitutional.
President Wilson and Secretary Garrison continue to carry out their excellent policy of promoting army officers of merit. On Saturday there were announced the selections of Brig.-Gens. Frederick Funston, Hugh L. Scott, and Tasker H. Bliss for the one existing and the two coming vacancies among the major-generals; of Gen. Scott, as Chief of Staff, in succession to Gen. Wotherspoon, retired, and of Cols. Henry A. Greene, William A. Mann, of the infantry, and Col. Frederick S. Strong, of the Coast Artillery, to be brigadier-generals. These are all worthy officers whose fitness can hardly be questioned. Gen. Funston has not, of course, the standing of a regularly trained officer, but his service at Vera Cruz, with the fact that he has served thirteen years acceptably as brigadier-general, and has for years been the senior in rank in that grade, makes his advancement altogether justifiable. The army will, we believe, agree with us in asserting that it has had under no other President so square a deal in the matter of the distribution of high honors. The Wilson custom has been to promote those colonels who are recommended by a majority of the existing generals, and it would be hard to devise a fairer method. For one thing, it wholly eliminates political pressure. If Gen. Scott's rise to the position of Chief of Staff has been rapid, it is merited, for he has served long with troops and in the field, and has in addition acquired certain lore, about our Indians, for instance, which is unequalled by any other officer. Best of all is the fact that President Wilson absolutely refuses to countenance the promotion of any officers as generals who have not served acceptably as colonels.
President Wilson, with good cause, resented and rebuked the offensive spokesman of the delegation of negroes who went to the White House to protest against the Administration's policy of segregation in the executive departments at Washington. The wonder is that such a poor representative of his race as the impudent mischief-maker from Boston was permitted the privilege of an interview with the President, and his exclusion for the future is well deserved.
But neither the offensive conduct of his caller nor the President's Justifiable Indignation will dispose of the issue raised by the protesting delegation. Until the Wilson Administration came into power there was no segregation of negro clerks at Washington; there was no necessity for it, there was no demand for it, in short there was no “segregation issue." The trouble began when the Secretary of the Treasury and the Postmaster General, with the aid and encouragement of the former's assistant, John Skelton Williams, gave ear to the agitation of a small group of Southern Democratic office holders and proceeded to fan into flame the fire of race hatred by quietly setting about the segregation of the negro clerks. The Transcript, as soon as the fact leaked out, protested against that procedure on the ground that it was un-American, unfair and unconstitutional. To a protesting delegation who visited the White House more than a year ago, the President promised an investigation of their charge that segregation was being enforced and left upon them the impression that he was wholly out of sympathy with such a scheme.
How at variance with that attitude, appears his confession of yesterday in which the President, for the first time, admits the enforcement of a policy of segregation and seeks to defend it with sort words about the “humanity" of its purpose. Had the conditions at Washington called for any such segregation as this Administration is enforcing, why were Presidents Cleveland, McKinley, Roosevelt and Tatt blind to that necessity? Why was there no demand for It? If, as the President contends, there is nothing political about this discrimination against the negro clerks, why has the enforcement of that policy been so often denied?
The truth is that segregation began soon after Mr. Wilson entered the White House; that it has been completed in at least two departments with his knowledge and his belated and reluctant admission of the fact is as condemnatory as the fact itself is in- defensible. The President's feeble resort to evasive rhetoric about the non-political character of the segregation issue is enough to tax the patience and affront the intelligence of even his heartiest well wisher. The segregation of the negroe clerks is not only political, but it is sectional and partisan, and as unnecessary as unconstitutional.
President Wilson and Secretary Garrison continue to carry out their excellent policy of promoting army officers of merit. On Saturday there were announced the selections of Brig.-Gens. Frederick Funston, Hugh L. Scott, and Tasker H. Bliss for the one existing and the two coming vacancies among the major-generals; of Gen. Scott, as Chief of Staff, in succession to Gen. Wotherspoon, retired, and of Cols. Henry A. Greene, William A. Mann, of the infantry, and Col. Frederick S. Strong, of the Coast Artillery, to be brigadier-generals. These are all worthy officers whose fitness can hardly be questioned. Gen. Funston has not, of course, the standing of a regularly trained officer, but his service at Vera Cruz, with the fact that he has served thirteen years acceptably as brigadier-general, and has for years been the senior in rank in that grade, makes his advancement altogether justifiable. The army will, we believe, agree with us in asserting that it has had under no other President so square a deal in the matter of the distribution of high honors. The Wilson custom has been to promote those colonels who are recommended by a majority of the existing generals, and it would be hard to devise a fairer method. For one thing, it wholly eliminates political pressure. If Gen. Scott's rise to the position of Chief of Staff has been rapid, it is merited, for he has served long with troops and in the field, and has in addition acquired certain lore, about our Indians, for instance, which is unequalled by any other officer. Best of all is the fact that President Wilson absolutely refuses to countenance the promotion of any officers as generals who have not served acceptably as colonels.
Original Format
Newspaper Article
Files
Collection
Citation
Unknown, “Jim Crow at Washington,” c. 1914 November, CS29, Race and Segregation Collection, Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library & Museum, Staunton, Virginia.