Chapter Review 581his back when he did not. When he ran for president
on the Progressive ticket in 1912, he pursued a “lily-
white” policy, hoping to break the Democrats’
monopoly in the South. By trusting in “[white] men
of justice and of vision,” Roosevelt argued in the face
of decades of experience to the contrary, “the colored
men of the South will ultimately get justice.”
The southern-born Wilson was actively hostile
to blacks. During the 1912 campaign he appealed
to them for support and promised to “assist in
advancing the interest of their race” in every possi-
ble way. Once elected, he refused even to appoint a
privately financed commission to study the race
problem. Southerners dominated his administra-
tion and Congress; as a result, blacks were further
degraded. No fewer than thirty-five blacks in the
Atlanta post office lost their jobs. In Washington
employees in many government offices were rigidly
segregated, and those who objected were summar-
ily discharged.
These actions stirred such a storm that Wilson
backtracked a little, but he never abandoned his
belief that segregation was in the best interests of
both races. “Wilson...promised a ‘new freedom,’”
one newspaperman complained. “On the contrary
we are given a stone instead of a loaf of bread.” Even
Booker T. Washington admitted that his people were
more “discouraged and bitter” than at any time in
his memory.
Du Bois, who had supported Wilson in 1912,
attacked administration policy in The Crisis. In
November 1914 the militant editor of the Boston
Guardian, William Monroe Trotter, a classmate of
Du Bois at Harvard and a far more caustic critic of the
Washington approach, led a delegation to the White
House to protest the segregation policy of the govern-
ment. When Wilson accused him of blackmail, Trotter
lost his temper, and an ugly confrontation resulted.
The mood of black leaders had changed completely.
By this time the Great War had broken out in
Europe. Soon every American would feel its effects,
blacks perhaps more than any other group. In
November 1915, a year almost to the day after
Trotter’s clash with Wilson, Booker T. Washington
died. One era had ended; a new one was beginning.
Many of the young Americans who had partici-
pated in the various crusades of the “age of reform”
would soon embark on another crusade—but one of
a very different character.The conflict between Booker T. Washington &
W.E.B Du Boisatwww.myhistorylab.comWatchtheVideo1890 National American Woman Suffrage Association is
founded
1900 Robert La Follette is elected governor of Wisconsin
McKinley is reelected president
1901 McKinley is assassinated; Theodore Roosevelt
becomes president
1902 Roosevelt helps settle anthracite coal strike
Oregon adopts initiative system for proposing
legislation
1904 Northern Securities case revives Sherman
Antitrust Act
National Child Labor Committee is established
Theodore Roosevelt is elected president
1905 Anticapitalist Industrial Workers of the World
(IWW) is founded
1906 Hepburn Act strengthens Interstate Commerce
Commission
Upton Sinclair exposes Chicago slaughterhouses in
The Jungle
1907 U.S. Steel absorbs Tennessee Coal and Iron
Company
1908 Theodore Roosevelt convenes National
Conservation Conference
Muller v. Oregonupholds law limiting women’s
work hours
William Howard Taft is elected president
1909 NAACP is founded
1910 Ballinger-Pinchot Affair deepens
Roosevelt-Taft rift
1911 Roosevelt gives New Nationalism speech
1912 Roosevelt runs for president on Progressive ticket
Woodrow Wilson is elected president
1913 Sixteenth Amendment authorizes federal
income taxes
Seventeenth Amendment provides for direct
election of U.S. senators
Underwood Tariff Act reduces duties and imposes
personal income tax
Federal Reserve Act gives the United States a
central banking system again
1914 Federal Trade Commission is created to protect
against trusts
Clayton Antitrust Act regulates business
1920 Nineteenth Amendment guarantees women the
right to voteMilestones
Chapter Review