[Mn. Black Republican Coalition]

What we did not learn about Wilson is as remarkable as what we did not learn about this president. We learned, and I teach today, that some say Wilson led our country into World War 1 and after the war led a national struggle to create the League of nation. We learned that Wilson would be associated with the suffrage movement. However, history lesson fail to mention two antidemocratic policies that Wilson failed to carry out: his racial segregation of the federal government and his military intervention in foreign countries. The United States intervened in Latin America more that anytime in our history. We landed more troops in Mexico in 1914, Haiti in 1915, and the Dominican in 1916. Wilson would maintina forces in Nicaragua, using them to determine its president and to press passage of a treaty preferential to the United States. Get this. Russian textbooks give great detail to Wilson (in 1917) giving monetary aid to “White” side of the Russian civil war. After a short hold on front lines as far west as Volga, the White Russian forces broken by the end of 1919, our troops would leave Vladivostok on April 1, 1920. Some historian accept the idea that Wilson’s interventions in Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Nicaragua, would set the historical stage for dictators of Batista, Trujillo, the Duvaliers, and the Somozas. What we did not learn about Wilson is as remarkable as what we did learn about Wilson. Critical Thinking Question. Why, do you suppose that over half of our textbooks fail to mention Wilson’s takeover of Haiti? U.S. Marines invaded Haiti in 1915 and forced their legislature to select our preferred president. Why?

Why do most textbooks only have a few sentences about Wilson’s racism? We shall cover this in Wilson, Part 3

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[gcruse]

This is from my blog, The User's Manual

Truman a Racist? How about Woodrow?

TIME 100: Builders & Titans - Madam's Crusade:

Sarah Breedlove was born on a cotton plantation near Delta, La., in 1867. Orphaned at age 7, married at 14, widowed at 20, Breedlove earned a subsistence living as a laundress in St. Louis, Mo. Seeking to supplement her income--and cure her case of alopecia, or baldness, commonly suffered by black women at the time because of scalp diseases, poor diet and stress--Breedlove became an agent for Annie Turnbo Pope Malone's Poro Co., selling its "Wonderful Hair Grower." Realizing the potential of these products, Breedlove took her daughter and $1.50 in savings to Denver, married her third husband, a newspaper sales agent named Charles Joseph Walker, and with him established a hair-care business that made brilliant use of advertising in the growing number of black newspapers.

"Walker became a central figure in black leadership and one of the first black philanthropists, donating funds to build a black ymca in Indianapolis and restore Frederick Douglass's home in Washington, and helping lead the protest against lynching--she traveled to the White House with other leaders to present a petition to Woodrow Wilson. (He declined to see them.) "

[ohioWfan]

However, history lesson fail to mention two antidemocratic policies that Wilson failed to carry out: his racial segregation of the federal government and his military intervention in foreign countries.

Do you have more information about Wilson's attempt to segregate the federal government?

I am doing some research on him, and it ties in to what I am looking for.

[mhking]

Good work, Lucky!

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[youngtory]

Question for my American friends: Was Woodrow Wilson a democrat or a republican?

[peacebaby]

We know that textbooks - especially those editted in today's world - are incorrect and misguided.

How pitiful it is that our children are misled.

[kipita]

I think Woodrow Wilson was a predictable product of the thinking at the time due to the effects of Darwinism. This thinking also spawned the eugenics movement.

"The eugenics movement concentrated on differences: its roots in scientific racism looked to the differences between the white and other races, while the family studies created a distinction between fit and unfit white folks. There are two types of eugenics:

"negative eugenics"-- the reduction of the excessively large number of births among the less favored, with the widespread use of contraception, sterilization and abortion.

"positive eugenics"-- increased production of the "fit"; can be advanced through artificial insemination, in vitro fertilization and genetic engineering."

[lepton]

It's not generally collected all in one place, so it takes a bit of putting together, but it was under Wilson (D) that the "Back to the Cornrows" policy was implemented, where all non-whites were removed from all non-servitude federal positions.

Compare that to the McKinley(R) and Roosevelt(R) Administrations.

[Clemenza]

You should read Wilson's letters to Colonel Edward Mandel House about Mexico. They made Stormfront look tame. Even in the context of his time, Wilson was one bigoted Crackah'.

[x]

What's sad is how some Black leaders trusted Wilson to change things and improve conditions for their people, and were bitterly disappointed. Dubois eventually became a Communist and ended up in Ghana. You can't blame that on Wilson, but certainly an opportunity was missed in his day.

One reason why so many African-Americans cling to the Democrats now may be that party-changers aren't always rewarded by those they sign on with. Certainly not to the extent that they'd like to be, and in 1912, not at all.

In his history of the United States, Wilson also referred to Southern and Eastern European immigrants as the "sordid and hapless" elements of the population in the Old Country. It's hard to see how he could have been elected President if the Republican party weren't so badly split.

Of course it was a different time from today, but Wilson, as a man of high principle was more bigoted than a more flexible and practical politician would have been. The average politican knows not to offend people needlessly, and Wilson apparently didn't have any hesitation doing that. Apparently some groups, African-Americans in particular, didn't count in his world.

[Susannah]

I have a copy of the 1990 edition of 'Don't Know Much About History' by Kenneth C. Davis. He's certainly a liberal and very unkind to Reagan and many conservatives, but he also points out how Wilson took us from the 'big stick' to the 'big brother'. He mentions Wilson's involvement in Latin America in a negative way (Nicarauga, Haiti, Dominican Republic, etc.)

Regarding Wilson's racism, this is a quote from the Davis book:

"The shame of Wilson's "progressive" administration was his abysmal record on civil rights. Under Wilson, Jim Crow became the policy of the U.S. government, with segregated offices, and blacks losing some of the few government jobs they held."

There is more interesting information in the book regarding Wilson's resistance to women voting. Only after Republicans gained control of Congress and states (Idaho and Colorado were among the first) started allowing women to vote and Wilson was eventually faced with women voting against him by a 2 to 1 margin....then Wilson gave in to the women who had protested him and endorsed the amendment.

Just a side note from the Davis book on something I didn't know about slavery: "by the time those first twenty Africans arrived in Jamestown aboard a Dutch slaver, a million or more black slaves had already been brought to the Spanish and Portugese colonies in the Carribbean and South America."