Tuesday, September 16, 2014
The second episode of The Roosevelts aired last night on PBS. This episode highlighted the Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt. He was a truly remarkable man who accomplished a great deal, but he did have his flaws. One of the flaws concerned his actions in the Brownsville Affair. As the documentary notes, TR was the first President to invite an African American (Booker T. Washington) to dinner at the White House. The dinner engagement caused him great political grief and was not repeated during his Presidency. However, the fact that TR had done so did raise some hopes within the African American community that TR would be a supporter of African American causes. And indeed, TR was an outspoken critic of the wave of lynchings that were occurring during the early 1900s.
These early acts of support by TR were later overshadowed by his shameful actions in the Brownsville Affair in which TR ordered the dishonorable discharge of 167 African American soldiers. You can read about the incident at
As noted in the documentary, what was particularly troubling is that some of these very same African American soldiers had been with TR in Cuba. Indeed, one had even shared his rations with TR after one of the battles. But TR gave no leeway to this fact, nor to the fact that six of the 167 were recipients of the Congressional Medal of Honor.
TR's actions with regards to the Brownsville Affair were despicable and, as the documentary further notes, in his memoir, his actions in the Brownsville Affair are conspicuously absent.
The third episode of The Roosevelts airs tonight. Stay tuned.
Peace.
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