The world is what you make of it. Let's see how that works out for a black man in 1913. You've been working for the federal mail service for, let's say, a solid decade. Despite the prejudices in much of the country, the federal mail service has been integrated since the reconstruction era, and so you wisely get a job there. You work right alongside your white coworkers, you have some opportunity for advancement, things are pretty good. There's still some prejudice, certainly - it's 1913, after all - but the federal mail service, like other federal departments, is an above-average place for a black man to work in that era.
Then, Wilson takes office. He appoints a new postmaster general, Albert Burleson. Burleson comes from a Southern plantation-owning family, his father was a confederate officer, and Burleson is a strident segregationist. The mail service that was once a beacon of opportunity for black workers changes within the first month. Across the south and elsewhere, many black employees are summarily fired. If you're lucky enough to keep your job, you'll instead be demoted to the lowest-paying work available. Wilson's administration went so far as to set up screens in offices to make sure that white employees didn't have to see their black coworkers. The postal service added a photograph requirement to applications so that they could avoid hiring black applicants - the hiring process had previously been based on merit.
Wilson would go on to extend these provisions to other federal departments as well. If you somehow made it through those 8 years, at least when 1920 rolled around and the Democrats were out of the White House, Harding's administration rolled back Wilson's segregationist policies.
But only a whiny, weak-willed individual would say that Wilson was to blame here, huh?
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Then, Wilson takes office. He appoints a new postmaster general, Albert Burleson. Burleson comes from a Southern plantation-owning family, his father was a confederate officer, and Burleson is a strident segregationist. The mail service that was once a beacon of opportunity for black workers changes within the first month. Across the south and elsewhere, many black employees are summarily fired. If you're lucky enough to keep your job, you'll instead be demoted to the lowest-paying work available. Wilson's administration went so far as to set up screens in offices to make sure that white employees didn't have to see their black coworkers. The postal service added a photograph requirement to applications so that they could avoid hiring black applicants - the hiring process had previously been based on merit.
Wilson would go on to extend these provisions to other federal departments as well. If you somehow made it through those 8 years, at least when 1920 rolled around and the Democrats were out of the White House, Harding's administration rolled back Wilson's segregationist policies.
But only a whiny, weak-willed individual would say that Wilson was to blame here, huh?