Mona Charen: Can national solidarity solve our race problems?
By Mona Charen 20 hours ago
Mona Charen
On Oct. 16, 1901, President Theodore Roosevelt invited Booker T. Washington to dine at the White House. As Edmund Morris relates in “Theodore Rex,” many Americans were pleased with this precedent-shattering dinner. But not all. Definitely not all. In the South, disgust and vitriol shook the rafters. A sample of headlines: “Roosevelt Dines a Darkey” and “Our Coon-Flavored President.”
Sen. Benjamin Tillman of South Carolina said, “The action of President Roosevelt in entertaining that n—– will necessitate our killing a thousand n—– in the South before they will learn their place again.”