Both Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson are criticized for their treatment of African Americans during their terms as U.S. president. For Roosevelt, President from 1901–1909, the Brownsville Affair in particular aroused criticism of his treatment of African Americans.
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States (1901–1909).
Also known as the Brownsville Raid, the Brownsville Affair arose from tensions between black soldiers and white citizens in Brownsville, Texas, in 1906. When a white bartender was killed and a police officer wounded by gunshot, townspeople accused members of the 25th Infantry Regiment, a segregated black unit stationed nearby. Although commanders said the soldiers had been in the barracks all night, evidence was planted against them. As a result of an Army Inspector General's investigation, Roosevelt ordered the dishonorable discharge of 167 soldiers, costing them their pensions and barring them from other civil-service jobs. The administration withheld news of the discharge of the soldiers until after the 1906 Congressional elections so the pro-Republican black vote would not be affected.
Black people and many white people across the United States were outraged at Roosevelt’s actions. Prior to the Brownsville Affair, the black community had supported the Republican president. They were loyal to the party of Abraham Lincoln, and they also noted that Roosevelt had invited civil rights leader Booker T. Washington to a White House dinner and had spoken out publicly against lynching. Roosevelt had also appointed numerous African Americans to federal office, such as Walter L. Cohen, whom he named register of the federal land office.
After the Brownsville Affair, however, black people began to turn against Roosevelt. Leaders of major black organizations, such as the Constitution League, the National Association of Colored Women, and the Niagara Movement, tried unsuccessfully to persuade the administration not to discharge the soldiers. From 1907–1908, the U.S. Senate Military Affairs Committee investigated the Brownsville Affair and in March 1908 reached the same conclusion as Roosevelt. A minority report by four Republicans concluded that the evidence was too inconclusive to support the discharges. In September 1908, civil rights leader W.E.B. Du Bois urged black people to register to vote and remember their treatment by the Republican administration when it was time to cast a ballot for President.
A renewed investigation in the early 1970s exonerated the discharged black troops. The government pardoned them and restored their records to show honorable discharges but did not provide retroactive compensation for the time they could have been working.