THE MIDDLE OF THE PACK 11 Ulysses S. (born Hiram Ulysses) Grant of Ohio 18th President, 1869-1877
THE RECORD: The Union general who won the Civil War was rewarded with the presidency in 1868. While he is not generally considered a great overall president, black Americans made their greatest strides in his two terms than at any point until the FDR years. He signed laws that gave equal rights to blacks, allowed them to serve on juries and hold office, in Washington, D.C., and gave foreign-born blacks citizenship. Grant instituted Reconstruction in the South backed by U.S. Army troops, which gave blacks unprecedented political power, and outlawed the nascent Ku Klux Klan. Unfortunately, some of the black “carpetbaggers” who moved to the South to take advantage of the political opportunities tended to be corrupt.
12 Theodore Roosevelt of New York 26th President, 1901-1909
THE RECORD: Teddy Roosevelt, only the third vice president to succeed an assassinated president, epitomized America at the dawn of the 20th century: youthful, energetic, idealistic, full of ambition. He was unusually open-minded for his era, and that extended to matters of race. During the SpanishAmerican War, Roosevelt recruited black “Buffalo Soldiers” to serve in his Rough Riders regiment. White Southerners berated him for inviting Booker T. Washington to the White House for a consultation, the first time a black man had been given such an honor. On the other hand, the Brownsville Incident of 1906, wherein a dozen black Army soldiers were wrongfully accused of a shooting based solely on racial prejudice and were dishonorably discharged, thus ruining their lives, represented a low point in race relations.
13 Thomas Jefferson of Virginia 3rd President, 1801-1809
THE RECORD: Yes, Jefferson owned slaves and impregnated one of them, Sally Hemings; however, it was the Declaration of Independence that introduced the concepts of democracy and human rights in the U.S. without which Africans in America could not rise. He was a white supremacist who wanted blacks sent back to Africa after a period of education, but he failed twice in getting slavery banned, first in the Declaration and then in the Constitution—where he nearly succeeded. As president, Jefferson did ban the importation of enslaved Africans but would not recognize Haiti’s independence in 1804, thinking it would encourage enslaved Southern blacks to revolt or emigrate there. BAVUAL 34
FALL 2022
