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Perhaps more than any other president of the nineteenth century including Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant was the best friend of African Americans.
In past issues of JBHE we have examined the racial attitudes of several presidents from George Washington to Richard Nixon. Almost all U.S. presidents held strong white supremacist views. Many presidents were slave owners. All four presidents whose images are carved in stone on Mount Rushmore held racist or white supremacist views. Many presidents told "darky" jokes or used racial slurs in normal conversation. Other presidents questioned die intelligence, loyalty, or courage of black Americans. Here are some examples:
* George Washington owned hundreds of slaves. In a letter to a friend Washington complained, "When an overlooker's back is turned, die most of them will slight their work, or be idle alto gether."
* Thomas Jefferson, also a slave owner, complained of blacks' foul odor and tiiought them intellectually inferior.
* During his 1858 debate with Stephen Douglas, Abraham Lincoln said, "I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races. There is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality."
* President Woodrow Wilson was fond of telling "darky stories" in dialect at cabinet meetings. Earlier, as president of Princeton University, Wilson did everydiing in his power to keep the university lily-white. In a 1904 letter to a friend, Wilson wrote: "While there is nofhing in the law of the university to prevent a Negro's entering, the whole temper and tradition of the place are such mat no Negro has ever applied for admission, and it seems extremely unlikely that die question will ever assume a practical form."
* At the 1924 QOP convention that nominated Calvin Coolidge, black delegates were separated from other delegates by chicken wire. A proponent of eugenics, Coolidge said in 1924: "Biological laws show us that Nordics deteriorate when mixed with other races.
* Dwight Eisenhower was fond of telling "nigger jokes" on the golf course. In...