Taking on Theodore Roosevelt

December 1, 2014

Attorney and freelance writer Lembeck (secretary, Theodore Roosevelt Association) uncovers important details about a less-savory event in a largely lauded presidency: Theodore Roosevelt's decision to let stand--conveniently after the midterm elections of 1906--the discharge without honor of 167 African American soldiers accused without proof of shooting up the border town of Brownsville, TX. Ironically, Senator Joseph Foraker (known for the Foraker Act of 1900), an Ohio-based conservative orator with presidential ambitions and a Union veteran from Roosevelt's own party, led the unsuccessful effort for an investigation to reinstate the troops. In 1907, Foraker and Roosevelt publicly argued with each other at the ordinarily lighthearted Gridiron Dinner and in 1908 the state legislature (before the passage of the 17th Amendment) defeated the senator's bid for reelection owing to the president's opposition and Hearst newspapers' revelation of his connection to standard oil. The author maintains that the Brownsville incident was the beginning of the migration of black support away from Lincoln's party. VERDICT Assiduously researched, this book presents for practitioners and general readers alike a more complete and complicated portrait of the gifted yet sometimes impulsive and self-righteous Roosevelt. It also brings to light Foraker, a less well-known but significant political player, who proved that honest efforts to correct wrongs can come from surprising, otherwise nonreformist, sources.--Frederick J. Augustyn Jr., Lib. of Congress, Washington, DC

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 15, 2014
In August 1906, a series of shots rang out in the south Texas town of Brownsville. The shooting lasted approximately 20 minutes, leaving damaged buildings, one man severely wounded, and another man dead. In this segregated city, suspicion immediately fell on the African American battalion stationed in the city, although its white officers claimed all of their men were in their barracks. Members of the battalion could not or would not identify any of their comrades as participants, so no criminal charges could be brought. However, President Theodore Roosevelt, outraged at what he considered a conspiracy of silence, had all 167 men of the battalion dishonorably discharged, with loss of pensions. Lembeck, a retired attorney and historian, chronicles the efforts of a Republican Ohio senator, Joseph Foraker, to fight Roosevelt and right what he viewed as an outrageous injustice. Foraker was no progressive; he was a conservative Republican who had resisted most of Roosevelt's reforms, but he was a retired judge with a strong belief in due process and individual, not collective, responsibility. Foraker's struggle, along with the efforts of nascent civil rights organizations, forms the core of this ultimately successful struggle for justice.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)