And just because the rumors regarding his race, were spread around by his political enemies, including his father-in-law, Amos Kling, who was opposed to his daughter marrying into the Harding family, doesn't mean the rumors were without merit. And Harding, when asked about the rumors of black blood in the Harding family, replied, and I'm paraphrasing, that he didn't know if there was someone in the woodpile somewhere in the Harding lineage.
I appreciated your comments about Harding. I learned a great deal from what you had to say. As you stated, the Harding record on race had some modest achievements, but I think that Harding showed a great deal of courage when he made the famous speech in Birmingham Alabama in 1921, where he called for political and social equality for black people in America. Pointing to the white section of the segregated Woodrow Wilson Park, Harding said, "Whether you like it or not, unless our democracy is a lie, you must stand for equality." That was a pretty gutsy thing to do in the deep south in 1921. So gutsy that the head of the Tuskegee Institute said of Harding's address before the segregated crowd in Birmingham, that Harding's words were the most important utterance on race since Abraham Lincoln.
