Humpday History Highlight

On this day in 1905, President Theodore Roosevelt delivers a stirring speech to the New York City Republican Club.

Roosevelt had just won his second reelection, and in this speech, he discussed the country’s current state of race relations and his plan for improving them. In 1905, many white Americans’ attitude of superiority to other races still lingered. Much bitterness still existed between North and South and, in addition, Roosevelt’s tenure in office had seen an influx of Asian immigrants in the West, which contributed to new racial tensions. In his argument for racial equality, Roosevelt used the “rising tide raises all ships” metaphor, stating that if “morality and thrift among the colored men can be raised” then those same virtues among whites, already assumed to be more advanced, would “rise to an even higher degree.” At the same time, he warned that “the debasement of the blacks will in the end carry with it [the] debasement of the whites.”

Roosevelt’s solution to the race problem in 1905 was to proceed slowly toward social and economic equality. He cautioned against imposing radical changes in government policy and instead suggested a gradual adjustment in the attitudes of whites toward ethnic minorities. He referred to white Americans as “the forward race,” whose responsibility it was to raise the status of minorities through training “the backward race[s] in industrial efficiency, political capacity and domestic morality.” Thus, he claimed whites bore the burden of “preserving the high civilization wrought out by its forefathers.” (H/T - History.com)

The man was ahead of his time, and why I still believe he is America's greatest President. Bully!