Throughout history, Black Americans have had a complicated relationship with the president. Although we faithfully participate in the democratic process, casting our vote for the candidate we feel will act in our best interest, often we are left feeling that the person elected to look out for us isn’t.
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We have a list of times when past and current United States presidents have been racist to Black and minority folks that cannot be up for debate, from the horrible phone call between President Richard Nixon and President Ronald Reagan to President Lyndon B. Johnson’s casual use of the N-word.
President Richard Nixon and President Ronald Reagan’s Phone Call
In 2019, CBS reported that a racist phone call between President Richard Nixon and then-California Governor Ronald Reagan had been recorded in 1971. During their conversation, which should have been about the United Nations recognizing the Republic of China, Reagan veered completely off topic to insult the African representatives who had celebrated the vote. He called them “monkeys” who were “still uncomfortable wearing shoes.”
Not only did Reagan call the African delegates horrid slurs, but in another recorded phone call, Nixon spoke to then-Secretary of State William P. Rogers and referred to the leaders as “cannibals,” per CBS.
President Richard Nixon Says Black Folks Need To Be Inbred with White Folks
According to The Irish Times, in more recorded conversations, Nixon didn’t hold back on his thoughts on Black Americans with his personal secretary, Rose Mary Woods. Speaking about whether African Americans would help strengthen the nation, Nixon opposed the views of his then-secretary of state, William P. Rogers.
“He (Rogers) says, ‘Well, they are coming along, and that after all they are going to strengthen our country in the end because they are strong physically and some of them are smart.’ So forth and so on,” Nixon said. “My own view is that I think he’s right if you’re talking in terms of 500 years. I think it’s wrong if you’re talking in terms of 50 years. What has to happen is they have to be, frankly, inbred. And, you just, that’s the only thing that’s going to do it, Rose.”
President Donald Trump Calls Black Nations “S*hole Countries”
At the start of 2018, President Donald Trump made his feelings toward African, Caribbean and South American nations very clear when he referred to them as “shithole countries.” According to Time magazine, Trump pointed out Haiti, El Salvador and various African countries, asking why America accepts immigrants from those nations as opposed to Norwegian or Asian immigrants who would help the economy.
President Woodrow Wilson Resegregates The Workforce
In 1913, President Woodrow Wilson helped to widen the income gap between Black and White workers even more. According to the University of California, Berkeley newsroom, Wilson created a mandate for the federal workforce to be segregated by race, whereas before Black employees had been able to work at all levels of the federal government.
He did this by first implementing his mandate in post offices, which employed the majority of Black civil workers, and then in the Treasury Department, which had the second-largest number of Black civil workers.
President Andrew Johnson Fighting Against The 14th Amendment
While many congressional Republicans were ready to give rights and citizenship to freed slaves and birthright citizenship to all minorities born in the United States, President Andrew Johnson was attempting to lobby support opposing what would become the 14th Amendment. According to the digital learning platform Lumen Learning, Johnson gave speeches titled “Swing Around the Circle” to oppose the idea, which led to his reputation sinking.
President Andrew Jackson Viewing Native Americans As Inferior
According to PBS, in 1814, President Andrew Jackson was central to the Creek Native American nations losing 23 million acres of land between southern Georgia and central Alabama. White settlers viewed Indian nations as being in the way of their expanding U.S. empire.
Not only did Jackson lead the U.S. Army in forcing out Native Americans from their homes, but in 1830, while in office, he signed the Indian Removal Act, which forced more Native Americans away from their land to the western part of the country. While many tribes, such as the Cherokee, the Creeks and the Chickasaws, attempted to protest, they were forced out by 7,000 troops who also looted their homes. Native Americans were then made to march to the western land, which became known as the Trail of Tears after many died of cold, hunger and disease, per PBS.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt Stripping Japanese American Citizenship
In February 1942, two months after Pearl Harbor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, which led to heightened suspicions and detainment of non-white Americans, but especially Japanese Americans. By the following month, Japanese Americans were forcibly evacuated from the West Coast and sent to assembly centers, according to the National Archives. By August, more than 100,000 Japanese Americans were held in detention in the assembly centers.
President Thomas Jefferson Viewed Black Folks As Inferior To White Folks
In his 1785 book “Notes on the State of Virginia,” President Thomas Jefferson theorized that white folks were intellectually superior to Black folks.
“I advance it therefore as a suspicion only, that the blacks, whether originally a distinct race, or made distinct by time and circumstances, are inferior to the whites in the endowments both of body and mind. It is not against experience to suppose that different species of the same genus, or varieties of the same species, may possess different qualifications. Will not a lover of natural history then, one who views the gradations in all the races of animals with the eye of philosophy, excuse an effort to keep those in the department of man as distinct as nature has formed them?” he wrote.
President Theodore Roosevelt Racial Hierachy Views
President Theodore Roosevelt was a firm believer in racial hierarchies and saw it necessary for white settlers in the U.S. to expand their territory, according to NBC News. Not only did he see the expansion of white territory as a right, but he also did not want African Americans to be praised or receive credit for their part in the Spanish-American War.
Per NBC News, in his 1899 memoir “The Rough Riders,” Roosevelt wrote that Black soldiers would crumble under the pressure of war, but he also jotted that they were dependent on the guidance of their white officers.
President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Excessive Use of The N-Word
Just because President Lyndon B. Johnson passed the Civil Rights Act does not mean that he viewed African Americans as his peers. According to MS Now, he often used racial slurs when referring to the legislation and the people it protected, and he would not hold back from using the N-word while in office.
President Harry S Truman Throwing Out Racial Slurs
On a similar note to Johnson, Harry S. Truman helped to advance the civil rights movement, but he also held many racist views. According to The New York Times, in letters he wrote as a young man, long before becoming president, Truman openly expressed his racial prejudice toward Black folks and Asians.
“He (Truman’s uncle) does hate Chinese and Japs. So do I. It is a race prejudice, I guess. But I am strongly of the opinion that negros ought to be in Africa, yellow men in Asia and white men in Europe and America,” he wrote.
President James K. Polk Buying and Selling Slaves
While in the White House, President James K. Polk acted as though the only reason he had slaves was that he had inherited them from family members, but behind the veil, he was running a lucrative slave plantation. He often sold and separated children as young as 10 from their parents, according to the White House Historical Association. However, he kept everything about his business selling slaves private to not damage his political reputation.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower Complaining About Desgregated Schools
While the U.S. Supreme Court worked to pass Brown v. Board of Education, which led to the desegregation of public schools, President Dwight Eisenhower complained about the idea of little white girls having to sit next to “big black bucks,” according to The Atlantic. He also often used racial slurs in private.
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