Conservative Southern Values Revived: How a Brutal Strain of American Aristocrats Have Come to Rule

[mahatmakanejeeves]

14. Good G*d, what a load of self-serving crap.

Last edited Fri Jun 29, 2012, 08:52 AM - Edit history (2)

Shall we continue quoting from that article?

Among the presidents, this strain gave us both Roosevelts, Woodrow Wilson, John F. Kennedy, and Poppy Bush -- nerdy, wonky intellectuals who, for all their faults, at least took the business of good government seriously.

Woodrow Wilson was a notorious white supremacist.

http://postalmuseum.si.edu/AfricanAmericanHistory/p5.html
The History and Experience of African Americans in America’s Postal Service

Woodrow Wilson: Federal Segregation

During Woodrow Wilson’s 1912 presidential campaign, he promised African Americans advancement. He stated, “Should I become President of the United States, [Negroes] [sic] may count upon me for absolute fair dealing and for everything by which I could assist in advancing the interests of their race in the United States.”(1) Believing in his promise, many African Americans broke their affiliation with the Republican Party and voted for Wilson. He did not, however, fulfill the promises he made during the campaign to the African American community during his presidency. Less than a month after his March 4, 1913 inauguration,(2) President Wilson’s Administration took the first steps towards segregating the federal service.

The question of federal segregation was first discussed in high administration circles at a closed cabinet meeting on April 11, 1913.(3) At the Cabinet meeting Postmaster General Albert S. Burleson argued for segregating the Railway Mail Service. He was disturbed by whites and African Americans working in the Railway Mail Service train cars. The workers shared glasses, towels, and washrooms.(4) He said segregation was in the best interest of the African American employees and in the best interest of the Railway Mail Service.(5) Burleson’s ultimate goal was not only to make the railway lines “lily white”(6) but to segregate all government departments.(7) President Wilson replied to Burleson by saying that he had made “no promises in particular to Negroes [sic], except to do them justice.”(8) He argued that he “wished the matter adjusted in a way to make the least friction”.(9) While President Wilson expressed no direct objections to Burleson’s segregation plans, support came primarily from other cabinet members.

Shortly after the April 11 cabinet meeting, cabinet members Treasury Secretary William G. McAdoo and Postmaster General Albert S. Burleson segregated employees in their departments with no objection from President Wilson.(10) Segregation was quickly implemented at the Post Office Department headquarters in Washington, D.C. Many African American employees were downgraded and even fired. Employees who were downgraded were transferred to the dead letter office, where they did not interact with the public. The few African Americans who remained at the main post offices were put to work behind screens, out of customers’ sight.(11)

The segregation implemented in the Department of Treasury and the Post Office Department involved not only screened-off working spaces, but separate lunchrooms and toilets. Other steps were taken by the Wilson Administration to make obtaining a civil service job more difficult. Primary among these was the requirement, begun in 1914, that all candidates for civil service jobs attach a photograph to their application(12) further allowing for discrimination in the hiring process.

Hey, no problem, he knew best, and it was all for my own good. If only I were his intellectual equal, I would know better.

Talk about whitewashing. Lord, save me from my intellectual superiors.

And please pass me some o' them grits.

Wait - I just have to add this:

http://postalmuseum.si.edu/AfricanAmericanHistory/p6.html
The History and Experience of African Americans in America’s Postal Service

1920’s–1930’s: Coming Back Together

A shift from federal segregation to desegregation came in the early 1920’s under Republican administrations. The number of African Americans employed in the Post Office Department (POD) began to increase during President Warren G. Harding’s Administration (1921-1923).(1) By 1928, it was estimated that African Americans made up 15 to 30 percent of postal employees in major post offices.(2)

The status of African Americans postal employees continued to improve during the 1920’s and 1930’s. In 1925, the First Assistant Postmaster General, J. H. Bartlett, attended a meeting of African American postal workers. In a formal address, Bartlett discussed the “The Value of the Negro [sic] to the Postoffice.”(3) In his address, Bartlett encouraged African Americans to take advantage of the opportunities available to them through employment with the POD. He stated that of the 46,739 city letter carriers in the United States, 2,400 were African American and pointed out that many African American men had just been appointed to supervisory positions in New York and Chicago post offices.(4)

Opportunities for African Americans for advancement within the Post Office Department continued under President Herbert Hoover and his Postmaster General, Walter F. Brown. At the fifth biennial convention of the National Alliance of Postal Employees (later NAPFE), the Second Assistant Postmaster General, on behalf of Brown, emphasized to the convention attendants that Postmaster General had the “concept of a fair deal for all.”(5)