"Taking on Teddy Roosevelt" by Harry Lembeck (2015)

There is a widespread belief which holds that the 1948 defection of the so called “Dixiecrats” who left the Democratic Party over Harry Truman’s desegregation of the Armed Forces sparked the defection of African-Americans from the Republican Party of Lincoln to the Democratic Party of today.  And there is some truth to that. But the real migration began about 50 years before that and involves Theodore Roosevelt, Booker T. Washington, and a riot in Texas which may not have been what it appeared to be.

In August 1906 the 25^th Colored Infantry Division was stationed at Fort Browning in Brownsville, Texas. They had replace the all-white 24^th which had served it’s time and was rotating back east. The townsfolk were more than a bit leery of having armed colored troops stationed just outside of town.

After several racially motivated incidents, several men; supposedly from the fort; went on a shooting spree, wounding some of the townsfolk and damaging most of the buildings which had refused to serve them. The events that followed underscored the deep racial divisions which split America in the days after the Civil War and still divide us in many ways.

   

President Theodore Roosevelt, who had served as William McKinley’s Vice President, was seen as a “gradualist” in the matter of race relations. He talked a great game about equality as he set the Great White Fleet off to show the flag, but here at home the President allied himself with Booker T. Washington; the African-American educator who founded the Tuskegee Institute to train Negroes in the Industrial Arts. 

In some ways Tuskegee was a trade school; rather than a true college of higher learning. He believed; and the President agreed with him; that Negroes were better suited for factory work and menial labor rather than any of the professions. They believed that it would take time to achieve the educational levels for Negroes to rise in society. One has to wonder whether or not anyone ever bothered to ask Booker T. how he had made the transition so quickly, and why he felt that his contemporaries could not.

The author explores the attitudes of the times in relation to the expectations of the African-American concerning armed blacks in the military. Although the “colored” troops had performed well in the Civil War; and the legendary Buffalo Soldiers; to whom the soldiers of the beleaguered 25th Colored Regiment were related by history; the people in Brownsville Texas were clearly not comfortable in having these troops present. It was only a matter of time until something happened.

The author explores the writings of some of the most illustrious African-American writers of the day; pitting the writings of W.E. DuBois against the politics; and policies; of Booker T. Washington and President Roosevelt. While DuBois was initially in agreement with the “gradualism” approach to equality, he ultimately saw the flaws in this arrangement. Who would decide when African-Americans were ready for advancement? Shouldn’t that question be decided by the African-Americans themselves; rather than be left with the very government which had allowed them to be enslaved for over 80 years after Independence had been declared?

This is a sweeping book encompassing both the incident at Fort Browning itself; as well as the political implications for the entire nation at the time. It would be well to remember that the history in these pages informs the debate on race relations in America today every bit as much as the news in today’s paper.

"Guest of Honor" by Deborah Davis (2012)

Theodore Roosevelt and Booker T. Washington both struggled mightily to attain their respective statures in life. Roosevelt struggled against childhood illness and asthma, while Washington struggled against the whole of society, to attain access to the fruits of which most of his race were denied. That they were to meet someday should come as no surprise.

The story told in this book really begins with the friendship between Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglas. TR was just a boy when the slain President’s funeral procession passed by his home in NYC, and he considered Lincoln to have been one of our nation’s finest leaders. Ms. Davis’ use of that friendship as a backdrop for the story of Roosevelt’s dinner with Booker T. Washington gives the reader a more clear understanding of the evolving times in which that dinner occurred.

During that dinner, which was held behind closed doors on a Sunday night in the White House, TR spoke with Washington about the problems attendant with making any real progress for the African-American masses. Booker T. had already established his famed Tuskegee Institute with great success, and the President had unbridled respect for any man who could overcome the many barriers which life often erects to thwart progress. He had overcome his own, and deeply admired men of like mind.

TR had a plan to impart to his friend; why not make African–American appointments in the North where there was less opposition to the idea? During reconstruction there had been prominent black political leaders in the South, but with the end of Reconstruction, in the 1870’s, Jim Crow became the “norm” and the election of blacks to various local offices; and their election to more prominent ones; became a fool’s dream. TR’s plan, enthusiastically supported by Booker T., would enable the African-American’s appointed in the North to showcase their talents and abilities. Hopefully, these examples would serve to ease the path to equality for blacks in the South.

The author paints a complete picture of both men, and their accomplishments. The chapter on the Rough Riders during the Spanish-American War was of special interest to me. Many Americans are not aware that Roosevelt was an Assistant Secretary to Secretary of the Navy John Long at the time hostilities broke out.  When Secretary Long was at home, presumably ill for the day, Roosevelt usurped his authority and virtually “jump started” the war with Spain just one week after the USS Maine was blown up in Havana Harbor.

By April, TR was in command of a Volunteer Regiment which he had organized himself. This regiment was comprised of the most diverse volunteers imaginable, including a Harvard football player, 4 New York City Policemen, various cowboys and Indian fighters with whom TR was acquainted, and even some Indians from our Southwest. There was also at least one confessed murderer in the regiment. Roosevelt had his uniform custom made at Brooks Brothers in New York before sailing off to war, and a solid place in history.

This is a highly entertaining, and informative book, which brings history to life for the reader. The author has seamlessly turned the story of one dinner into a highly charged, and multi-faceted, narrative of America in the last decades of the 19^th Century, and successfully taken us into the early years of the 20^th Century. With its section of notes, and a complete bibliography of sources, Ms. Davis has penned a real winner with this one.