How Woodrow Wilson’s Racist Policies Suppressed the Black Middle Class
He promised equality to all African Americans but ended up betraying them.
When Woodrow Wilson ran as a Democratic nominee for the presidential elections in 1912, he spent his time carefully gathering the support of the country’s influential and politically diverse
Black leadership. African American activists were fascinated by his “New Freedom” speeches that promised them equality and fairness. These activists included the likes of W.E.B. Du Bois, founder of The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and William Monroe Trotter, publisher of The Guardian, a civil rights newspaper. However, their hopes of voting for a “progressive” Democrat would soon crumble when Wilson would assume office.
Wilson’s Segregation Order Came “Swiftly and Suddenly”
Before Wilson became President in 1913, African Americans made up nearly a third of the population of Washington, D.C. The nation’s capital had a growing Black middle class that was just beginning to improve its socioeconomic status.
However, racial discrimination and inequality were still prevalent. Much like the rest of the country, schools, neighborhoods, and…
