How Two American Icons Blazed a Path for Racial Equality. Embark on a journey through the pages of “Teddy and Booker T.,” where the relentless pursuit of racial equality by two American icons unfolds. This narrative captures the essence of determination and the spirit of revolution, as it chronicles the lives of Theodore Roosevelt and Booker T. Washington.
Dive deeper into the saga of courage and collaboration that reshaped a nation; continue reading to discover the enduring legacy of Teddy and Booker T.
Table of Contents
Genres
History, Biography, Memoir, Society, Culture, Politics, Civil Rights, American Studies, Leadership, Social Movements, Race Relations, Educational Reform, Non-Fiction
“Teddy and Booker T.” by Brian Kilmeade delves into the lives and partnership of Theodore Roosevelt and Booker T. Washington. It highlights their contrasting upbringings—Roosevelt from wealth and Washington from slavery—and their converging paths towards advocating for racial equality. The book details Washington’s determination to educate himself and others, leading to the founding of the Tuskegee Institute, and Roosevelt’s political journey to the presidency, shaped by personal challenges and a commitment to reform.
Review
Kilmeade’s “Teddy and Booker T.” offers an engaging and accessible account of two pivotal figures in American history. While the book provides a compelling narrative, it may lack the depth and scholarly analysis some readers seek. However, its straightforward storytelling makes the complex subject of racial equality approachable, serving as an informative primer for those new to the topic. The author successfully brings to light the significant contributions of Roosevelt and Washington, making it a valuable read for anyone interested in the roots of civil rights in America.
Introduction: The backstory of a barrier-breaking friendship
Teddy and Booker T. (2023) tells the story of how President Theodore Roosevelt and Booker T. Washington, two wildly different Americans, faced the challenge of advancing racial equality in the early 1900s. When Roosevelt welcomed Washington into his circle of advisors in 1901, they confronted violent racist backlash, having risen to prominence in an era of increasing Jim Crow laws and lynching. Though coming from vastly different backgrounds, both men embodied the pioneering American spirit and believed progress was possible through collaboration.
Who would have thought one dinner invitation could cause such an uproar? Yet, the little-known real story of an unlikely alliance between two famous Americans did exactly that at the turn of the twentieth century. Theodore Roosevelt, the brash patrician president, and Booker T. Washington, the conservative Black educator, conspired to subtly boost civil rights during the repressive Jim Crow era.
This summary touches on how these provocative leaders from vastly different worlds bridged divides to recognize common interests. It delves into the actions they took to empower African Americans against racial oppression in the early 1900s, and the criticism they faced from contemporaries as a result.
You’ll take away overlooked lessons from this progressive partnership formed against all odds – including the importance of determination, economic empowerment for marginalized groups, and laying social groundwork through education to enable broader civil rights gains over time.
Very different upbringings
Booker T. Washington didn’t exactly get a head start in life. Born into slavery in Virginia in 1856, he spent his early years toiling in poverty even after emancipation granted him freedom at age nine. But Washington wasn’t about to let hardship squash his determination to make something of himself.
Working long days in the coal mines and salt furnaces of West Virginia, the young Washington became intent on learning to read and write. A kindly woman took notice of his drive and gave him reading and writing basics. This lit Washington’s hunger for knowledge into a blazing fire.
At just 16, Washington walked 500 miles to enroll in a secondary school for African Americans called the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute. Too broke to afford tuition, he offered his janitorial services in exchange for schooling.
At Hampton, Washington found a mentor in General Samuel Chapman Armstrong. Armstrong preached self-reliance and believed skilled trades were the key for recently freed Black people to succeed. Washington also benefited from the nurturing attention of influential teacher Nathalie Lord, who helped him hone his natural gifts for rhetoric and public speaking.
After graduation, Washington spent several years teaching Black students in rural schools across the South. Four years later, Armstrong invited him to join the staff at Hampton Institute to teach newcomers basic literacy. Despite Washington’s limited formal education, Armstrong had been impressed by his moral character, work ethic, and vocational skills – traits he believed students should aspire to.
Unlike Washington, Teddy Roosevelt was born in 1858 with every advantage – a wealthy New York family and all the best schooling. But he was plagued by health problems including asthma, and his dad warned his weak frame couldn’t support his big dreams. Roosevelt took that as a challenge to whip his body into shape.
As a teenager, he accompanied his family on trips to Europe and Egypt and indulged his adventurous spirit through mountain climbing, horseback riding, and rifle shooting. During the Civil War, while his father paid $300 for a substitute to avoid fighting, Roosevelt saw his mother’s brothers enlisted for the Confederacy, admiring their display of honor and duty.
In college, Roosevelt stretched his social muscles among Harvard’s student body. Tragically, his dad died while Teddy was studying there, leaving him devastated but even more motivated to live purposefully.
After graduation, Roosevelt enrolled at Columbia Law School but quickly lost interest in becoming a lawyer. He dropped out after one year to pursue his passion for writing and political engagement. In 1881, he published his first book, a well-received history called The Naval War of 1812. Through these early life experiences, the wildly different men developed persistence and fortitude that would serve them well on the public stage.
A tale of two daughters
Eighteen eighty-one proved momentous for both men. The same year Roosevelt published his acclaimed first book, the 25-year-old Washington received an invitation to spearhead a new teachers college for African Americans in Tuskegee, Alabama. The offer thrilled him, but the catch was the school existed only on paper.
Washington had just ten days to recruit an inaugural class of 25 students to unlock state funding. He secured a rundown shanty for makeshift classrooms and convinced locals to donate building materials. Enlisting his first pupils, Washington put hammers in their hands to construct permanent campus facilities themselves.
In this way, Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute took shape through bootstrap grit. Behind the scenes, Washington negotiated political minefields to secure the school’s future amid rising racism. The brave educator kept civil rights activism low-key to avoid backlash while quietly influencing community leaders.
During a fundraising tour of New England two years later, Washington experienced a jarring culture shift from Tuskegee. White northerners welcomed him into fine venues with open arms. Their generosity supplied the lifeline for Tuskegee to expand.
Around this time, Washington married Fanny Smith, an educator from West Virginia. Their daughter Portia was born shortly after. Tragically, when Portia was just a toddler, Fanny fell ill and died suddenly at age 26. Devastated and alone with his motherless little girl back in Alabama, Washington funneled his grief into building an even stronger Tuskegee.
Meanwhile, Roosevelt embarked on early political career successes in New York. Teaming with labor activist Samuel Gompers in 1882, his first major victory was passing landmark legislation to outlaw dangerous cigar-making workshops in city tenements.
Only two years later, Roosevelt’s home life unraveled. His wife Alice contracted typhoid fever shortly after the birth of their daughter in February 1884. Roosevelt watched helplessly as both his beloved wife and mother died on the same day.
Seeking escape from grief, Roosevelt left baby Alice with relatives and headed west to lose himself in adventure. After building a cattle ranch in the Dakotas, he returned renewed and ready to dive back into writing and politics. In 1886, he married childhood sweetheart Edith Carow, who elegantly presided over his public career while raising young Alice as her own.
Despite privilege shielding Roosevelt from the poverty Washington knew, both trailblazers experienced early, crushing losses of loved ones. Their relentless drive to build enduring institutions stands as a testament to transforming private pain into public good.
Rising to fame
After grieving the deaths of their wives, Roosevelt and Washington poured themselves into their work with renewed vigor in the late 1880s. Roosevelt first dove back into New York City politics, taking a prominent job as president of the Board of Commissioners.
Still just 30 years old, Roosevelt quickly built a reputation as an efficient, take-charge administrator. He attacked the role like a bull in a China shop, rooting out corruption and wasteful spending at every turn. This ruffled feathers, even as the public hailed him as a champion of reform against powerful interests enriching themselves at the taxpayers’ expense.
During these years, Washington’s profile as a gifted orator soared as he evangelized the Tuskegee model across the nation. Black community leaders tapped him to spearhead a new annual gathering called the Negro Conference to spark broader racial advancement.
His rousing speeches drew large white audiences too. When promoters lobbied the US government to host an international exposition in the South, Washington seized the chance to showcase Black achievements. Organizers chose him as a keynote speaker before distinguished guests.
Washington’s Atlanta Exposition address endorsed racial reconciliation through patient cooperation and economic empowerment. The press went wild, splashing his picture across front pages. White political leaders, particularly in the South, applauded his conciliatory tone.
Behind the scenes, the reality facing Southern Black people contrasted sharply with Washington’s public platform. Discrimination, disenfranchisement, and racial violence accelerated after Reconstruction’s collapse.
The 1890s saw Jim Crow segregation laws proliferate while lynching deaths of Black people skyrocketed nationwide. Washington trod carefully in this climate, likely figuring he could do more good uplifting his race than provoking retaliation.
Meanwhile, Roosevelt embraced the bully pulpit as Civil Service Commissioner in Washington, DC. He implemented sweeping, merit-based reforms for government hiring and promotions. True to his nature, he remained utterly indifferent to whom he angered in the process.
As the nineteenth century drew to a close, both Washington and Roosevelt had built tremendous momentum through a mix of vision, talent, and showmanship. But their greatest tests and opportunities still lay ahead. Each man would steer his sphere of influence through times of turbulence and change while facing criticism from all sides – Washington from Black people feeling he conceded too much to white oppressors, Roosevelt from political bosses seeing him as an ambitious loose cannon threatening entrenched interests.
Yet no matter the obstacles or who opposed them, Washington and Roosevelt displayed one standout trait propelling their rise: once locked on a goal, they’d burst through walls to achieve it rather than walk around.
Ascension to power
As the nineteenth century drew to a close, both Roosevelt and Washington reached new heights of prestige. But each now faced growing tensions that would test their vision and leadership skills like never before.
For Roosevelt, crisis struck America’s doorstep when rebellion erupted in Cuba against its imperial Spanish overlords in 1895. Public outrage boiled as newspapers reported appalling brutality waged against Cuban peasants.
Roosevelt, now serving as assistant secretary of the Navy under President McKinley, had spent years modernizing warships and stockpiling ammunition in preparation for just this scenario. But McKinley stalled on intervention despite the sinking of the USS Maine in Havana Harbor which killed over 260 American sailors.
Frustrated with White House inaction, Roosevelt suddenly resigned his desk job for combat. Offering to raise volunteer cavalry, his call was answered by frontiersmen, cowboys, Native Americans, and adventurers.
Roosevelt teamed with military officer Leonard Wood to rapidly whip these scruffy characters into fighting shape in Texas. Thus, his legendary “Rough Riders” regiment was born – an eccentric band of daredevils loyal to their rambunctious Colonel Roosevelt who asked only that they hasten to Cuba at once.
Storming San Juan Heights that July side-by-side with all-Black Buffalo Soldier regiments, the combined American force achieved victory in weeks. Roosevelt returned a decorated hero touted as a prime example of courageous American manliness.
The stunning win cemented America’s status as a world power, and the public clamored for the swashbuckling Roosevelt to seek higher office. But the victory abroad contrasted painfully with worsening racial oppression back home.
Even as Reconstruction’s last threads unraveled across the South, Washington’s star kept ascending as Black America’s most prominent spokesman. But pressure was mounting from all sides.
Militants pushed him to condemn lynchings and inequality more forcefully while white politicians demanded he stay in his lane uplifting Negro morality. Washington denounced injustice through his writings while adopting a conciliatory posture milder than his predecessor, Frederick Douglass.
He appealed to white benefactors to recognize progress by Black Americans such as the distinguished Buffalo Soldiers who fought alongside Roosevelt. Washington also shrewdly leveraged his access to leaders like President McKinley to further his institution-building aims.
But Washington could only grit his teeth as Southern states expanded segregation under Jim Crow laws. Enforced by lynch mobs, these reversed what little gains Black citizens made. That bloody year of 1898 saw over 100 African Americans murdered across the region.
All the while, Tuskegee Institute advanced brick by brick with Washington somehow maintaining Northern philanthropic ties, appeasing white Southern paranoia, and containing militant Black voices challenging his accommodationist path. He also took his inspiring message worldwide through speaking tours across Europe.
Both Roosevelt and Washington ascended to the spotlight at this pivotal turn-of-the-century moment marked by American expansionism abroad and resurgent racial repression at home. The stage now set, their destinies would soon intertwine on these issues in ways neither could yet foresee.
That fateful dinner
By 1901, Roosevelt rocketed to the presidency in the wake of McKinley’s assassination, bringing his fiery reform agenda to the White House. Washington stood at the peak of Black leadership, his pragmatic philosophy earning allies across racial lines.
Due to the assassination of President McKinley, Roosevelt had to write to Booker T. Washington to let him know that they wouldn’t be able to travel to Tuskegee as planned. Instead, he invited Washington to dine with him at the executive residence. Washington must have known the uproar such a visit could stir. After all, no African American had ever been granted such recognition.
The opportunity was too great to decline, so Washington donned his finest suit and presented himself at the White House door as requested. Roosevelt welcomed his eminent guest with gusto that evening, ushering him into the state dining room for an intimate meal. As wine glasses clinked by flickering hearth light, an extended candid conversation unfolded.
Roosevelt sought Washington’s perspective on the worsening crisis of racial violence and disenfranchisement throttling Reconstruction’s promise across the South. Washington laid the dire situation bare as only he could from decades of work in the trenches.
In turn, Washington praised the president’s past support of Black soldiers and asked that policies uphold equal opportunity for the community to prove themselves worthy of full citizenship. He touted Tuskegee’s model of moral and vocational education as one path forward.
The talk struck a positive chord. Washington later enthused privately it was the first time he’d ever dined with a white man who forgot his color. Though no tangible policies were plotted that night, both men emerged reaffirmed of one another as sincere change agents against formidable challenges.
Unfortunately, howls of outrage erupted at this White House dinner seen as far too intimate by the paralyzing standards of racial etiquette of that day.
Roosevelt shrugged off the controversy, stating it was merely natural for two prominent Americans to become acquainted. But the ruckus likely gave both pause on the immense social taboos and resentment still surrounding Black equality.
For his part, Washington wrote that while moved by this personal honor, what meant most was convincing influential leaders like Roosevelt to support economic and educational uplift for his marginalized race.
On the surface, the uproar soon faded. But unquestionably, the Roosevelt-Washington summit marked a hidden milestone – the first cracks appearing in the formidable wall of separation between Black and white leadership ranks at the highest corridors of power. The two trailblazers saw beyond the barriers of their day, recognizing aligned interests and mutual good faith. Both drew confidence and courage moving forward from their meeting of minds that night.
Their work together
Although they trod different sides of the color line, Roosevelt and Washington formed an unlikely alliance over the next eight years. Behind closed doors, Washington frequently visited the White House to update Roosevelt on racial affairs and strategize discreetly.
True to his word, Roosevelt consulted Washington when appointing African Americans to federal offices. When race riots erupted, Roosevelt followed Washington’s advice to avoid inflaming tensions through silence rather than strong condemnation.
In return, Washington rallied Black Republican support for Roosevelt’s policies and re-election. Their pragmatic relationship weathered controversy and pushback to modestly boost representation, education, and economic opportunity in Black communities under Roosevelt’s progressive agenda.
After leaving office, Roosevelt grew more outspoken against lynchings and racism. He considered running again with Washington’s blessing until declining health ended his political career. Washington split with militants but continued lifting Black civic and business leadership before dying unexpectedly in 1915.
Though criticized by activists demanding faster change, the trust these two forged enabled incremental gains against monumental odds. Both came to see education and economic empowerment as keys to securing Black equality through patient determination.
Conclusion
An unlikely friendship between President Theodore Roosevelt and prominent Black educator Booker T. Washington at the turn of the twentieth century made a lasting impact on the Civil Rights movement. Though from vastly different backgrounds, these two giants recognized alignment in their visions for uplifting marginalized groups through education and economic opportunity. Their discreet alliance weathered fierce controversy from both sides to enable modest yet tangible gains for African Americans in the early Civil Rights struggle. Despite criticisms for not forcing change faster, their patient courage in laying social and political groundwork is remembered as progress against the embedded racism of their age.
About the Authort
Brian Kilmeade