| Not Bob |
07-11-2005 06:46 PM |
Quote:
Originally posted by Spanky
I kind of like Wilson (especially his 14 points). Does anyone know why my Great Grandfather thought that Wilson was so anti-black. He said that Wilson was the "Negroes and the Coloreds worst enemy" and that it was like having Jefferson Davis as Presdient. In addition, I just find it hard to believe that the African American vote was that strong in rural Washington state.
|
That's because your great grandfather was old enough to think of the Democratic Party as the party of Rum, Romanism, and the Rebellion.
Blacks voted (in those places were they were allowed to vote) for the GOP ("thanks for freeing us, Mr. Lincoln!") by a vast majority until the Depression, when they slowly began voting for Democrats. Some historians say that the tipping point for the black middle class wasn't even until 1960, when JFK called Corretta Scott King when MLK Jr. was in jail. MLK Sr. said that, until that phone call, he never would have voted for a Catholic Democrat to be president.
Wilson was a racist, as were most white Americans of the time, but he went out of his way to publicize it. He expressed outrage that TR invited black leaders to the White House, and praised the pro-Klan movie "Birth of a Nation" as a great work of history.
|