John Fredrick Parker
Donor
Ike did push for civil rights in our timeline.
True, people often forget that Ike was the key mover behind the desegregation of DC, for example...
Ike did push for civil rights in our timeline.
If somehow in 1927 Herbert Hoover had had some common sense and decency talked into him, African Americans may not have left the GOP in droves. This is from Wikipedia:The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 broke the banks and levees of the lower Mississippi River in early 1927, resulting in flooding of millions of acres and leaving one and a half million people displaced from their homes. Although such a disaster did not fall under the duties of the Commerce Department, the governors of six states along the Mississippi specifically asked for Herbert Hoover in the emergency. President Calvin Coolidge sent Hoover to mobilize state and local authorities, militia, army engineers, the Coast Guard, and the American Red Cross.Apparently the Great Humanitarian had feet of clay and ultimately that cost the Republicans.
With a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation, Hoover set up health units to work in the flooded regions for a year. These workers stamped out malaria, pellagra, and typhoid fever from many areas. His work during the flood brought Herbert Hoover to the front page of newspapers almost everywhere, and he gained new accolades as a humanitarian. The great victory of his relief work, he stressed, was not that the government rushed in and provided all assistance; it was that much of the assistance available was provided by private citizens and organizations in response to his appeals. "I suppose I could have called in the Army to help," he said, "but why should I, when I only had to call upon Main Street."
The treatment of African Americans during the disaster endangered Hoover's reputation as a humanitarian. Local officials brutalized blacks and prevented them from leaving relief camps, aid meant for African-American sharecroppers was often given to the landowners instead, and many times black males were conscripted by locals into forced labor, sometimes at gun point. Knowing the potential ramifications on his presidential aspirations if such knowledge became public, Hoover struck a deal with Robert Moton, the prominent African-American successor to Booker T. Washington as president of the Tuskegee Institute. In exchange for keeping the suffering of African Americans out of the public eye, Hoover promised unprecedented influence for African Americans if he was elected president. Moton agreed, and consistent with the accommodationist philosophy of Washington, worked actively to suppress information about mistreatment of blacks from being revealed to the media. Following election, Hoover broke his promises. This led to an African-American backlash in the 1932 election that shifted allegiance from the Republican party to the Democrats.
If somehow in 1927 Herbert Hoover had had some common sense and decency talked into him, African Americans may not have left the GOP in droves. This is from Wikipedia:
The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 broke the banks and levees of the lower Mississippi River in early 1927, resulting in flooding of millions of acres and leaving one and a half million people displaced from their homes. Although such a disaster did not fall under the duties of the Commerce Department, the governors of six states along the Mississippi specifically asked for Herbert Hoover in the emergency. President Calvin Coolidge sent Hoover to mobilize state and local authorities, militia, army engineers, the Coast Guard, and the American Red Cross.Apparently the Great Humanitarian had feet of clay and ultimately that cost the Republicans.
With a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation, Hoover set up health units to work in the flooded regions for a year. These workers stamped out malaria, pellagra, and typhoid fever from many areas. His work during the flood brought Herbert Hoover to the front page of newspapers almost everywhere, and he gained new accolades as a humanitarian. The great victory of his relief work, he stressed, was not that the government rushed in and provided all assistance; it was that much of the assistance available was provided by private citizens and organizations in response to his appeals. "I suppose I could have called in the Army to help," he said, "but why should I, when I only had to call upon Main Street."
The treatment of African Americans during the disaster endangered Hoover's reputation as a humanitarian. Local officials brutalized blacks and prevented them from leaving relief camps, aid meant for African-American sharecroppers was often given to the landowners instead, and many times black males were conscripted by locals into forced labor, sometimes at gun point. Knowing the potential ramifications on his presidential aspirations if such knowledge became public, Hoover struck a deal with Robert Moton, the prominent African-American successor to Booker T. Washington as president of the Tuskegee Institute. In exchange for keeping the suffering of African Americans out of the public eye, Hoover promised unprecedented influence for African Americans if he was elected president. Moton agreed, and consistent with the accommodationist philosophy of Washington, worked actively to suppress information about mistreatment of blacks from being revealed to the media. Following election, Hoover broke his promises. This led to an African-American backlash in the 1932 election that shifted allegiance from the Republican party to the Democrats.
True, people often forget that Ike was the key mover behind the desegregation of DC, for example...
In my opinion the black vote started to turn its back on the GOP even before the Depression. Teddy Roosevelt made some big mistakes in his relations to the black population, and even though this didn't matter that much at the time, as blacks were largely disenfranchisied in the beginning of the 20th century(the nadir of American race relations), it still meant that he alienated the leaders of the civil rights movement. Though TR made history by dining with Booker T. Washington in the White House, he never committed fully to acquiring equal rights for African-Americans, and his alliance with Booker never much besides appointing a few men of color to public office(William Crum in Charleston).
His condemnation of the 25th buffalo regiment in relation to the Brownsville incident(1906), also made a staunch enemy of W.E.B. Du Bois.
I know this is before the POD of 1950, but if TR managed to be a bit more sincere in his attempt to forge an alliance with the prominent black leaders of the time, and had won the 1912 election with the Bull Moose party, Joel Spingarn had been succesful in adding an anti racial discrimination statement to te Progressive platform, we might see a more progressive GOP with a solid hold on the black constituency.
This post might be irrelevant as it is a bit far from the OP's requirements, and TR winning in 1912 might be asb, I don't even know why I'm posting this. Well here it is.
In my opinion the black vote started to turn its back on the GOP even before the Depression. Teddy Roosevelt made some big mistakes in his relations to the black population, and even though this didn't matter that much at the time, as blacks were largely disenfranchisied in the beginning of the 20th century(the nadir of American race relations), it still meant that he alienated the leaders of the civil rights movement. Though TR made history by dining with Booker T. Washington in the White House, he never committed fully to acquiring equal rights for African-Americans, and his alliance with Booker never much besides appointing a few men of color to public office(William Crum in Charleston).
His condemnation of the 25th buffalo regiment in relation to the Brownsville incident(1906), also made a staunch enemy of W.E.B. Du Bois.