why would they elect him president when he had dealings with the Ku Klux Klan??

Back then, it didn't matter as much. This was a time when African Americans had very little rights, so electing a president with ties to the Klan wasn't that surprising

Why did it take two years after the Lusitania attack to declare war?

The US wanted to remain neutral much like Washington's Farewell Address Warns

Why would he be elected president for a second term if he had some kind of relations with the KKK?

Wilson was elected since he had much of the South's support, most of the Democrat's support and he was facing 2 conservatives that split the Republican's votes in half, allowing Wilson to just get by with a win.

He didn't seem like a very good person So why would they elect him president especially if there was people that didn't like slavery and he was apart of the ku klutz Klan?

All kinds of "not very good persons" have become president of the United States. A phrase that often guides me when I begin to overly admire someone is, "There is none that is righteous, no, not one." You may have heard it at a synagogue or church at one time or another.

Wait… if Woodrow Wilson came from a religious family, then why did he affiliate himself with the Klu Klux Klan? I thought religion back then was the only thing that didn’t segregate African Americans.

Religions all around the world encompass people who are not perfect. Wilson's racism was undented by his religious membership and affiliation. Alas, that is true even among the most religious, and the most irreligious people. Racism is like cancer.

How old would Woodrow Wilson be today?

Well, he was born in December of 1856, so he'd be 160 years old today.

If he campaigned "New Freedom" then why did he try to take that away from African-Americans with the KKK?

Racism operates insidiously in people. We often respond to situations and persons based on internal racist motivations that we don't realize we carry.

So, how come when Wilson aligned himself with the KKK, the people didn't push him out of office? I mean, it said that tons of people didn't like Wilson's decision to join the KKK. Were there enough people that he could have been pushed out?

Wilson did not join the KKK. He aligned himself with the KKK. He was a racist. He implemented segregation practices in the government that were more extreme than previous presidencies, but he did not join the KKK. There were a lot of people who did support Wilson's position with the KKK, mainly white southerners. There were also a lot of people who were more interested in Wilson's beliefs about other more imminent policies at the time, such as maintaining isolationism and progressive reform for whites, than his position on segregation. It was a very different time than now. Many Americans were worried about job security and felt threatened by immigrants and African Americans who might take their job if they go on strike for better working conditions.

I believe that Woodrow was a good and bad president. Is he really?

Like all of us, whatever we might be (students, video gamers, etc.), he was both good and bad.

Main content

Course: AP®︎/College US History > Unit 7

Lesson 5: World War I: military and diplomacy

The presidency of Woodrow Wilson

Google Classroom

Wilson campaigned for a second term on the slogan "He kept us out of war." But that wouldn't be true for long.

Overview

Woodrow Wilson was the 28th president of the United States. He served two terms in office, from 1913 to 1921.
Wilson was a Progressive Democrat who believed in the power of the federal government to expose corruption, regulate the economy, eliminate unethical business practices, and improve the general condition of society.
During Wilson’s years in office, the US federal government was segregated and the Ku Klux Klan experienced a major revival.
Wilson’s second term in office was dominated by the First World War. Though Wilson campaigned on the slogan “He kept us out of war,” escalating German aggression ultimately made it impossible for the United States to stay out of the conflict.

Woodrow Wilson’s rise to power

Woodrow Wilson was born in Staunton, Virginia in 1856 to a very religious family. His father was one of the founders of the Southern Presbyterian Church and Wilson’s religious upbringing shaped his political views and outlook on the world. He grew up in Georgia and South Carolina and was the first Southerner to become president since James Polk in 1848.

Wilson ran on the Democratic ticket in the 1912 presidential election and triumphed. Wilson campaigned on a “New Freedom” platform, which promised banking, tariff, and business reform while pledging to respect individual freedoms and private industry.

^{1}

Woodrow Wilson's first term in office

Once in office, Wilson pursued this agenda, lowering tariffs, creating the Federal Reserve System, championing antitrust legislation, improving protections for workers, and establishing the Federal Trade Commission to crack down on monopolistic business practices. These policies reflected Wilson’s faith in the Progressive movement, which sought to harness the power of the federal government to regulate the economy, expose corruption, and improve society by ameliorating the negative effects of industrialization.

^{2}

On the civil rights front, the Wilson administration pursued regressive policies, working with Southern Democrats to segregate the federal government. After years of African American advances in the civil service, this represented a huge step backwards for civil rights. During these years, the Ku Klux Klan experienced a major revival. President Wilson aligned himself symbolically with the KKK by ordering a private screening of D.W. Griffith’s notoriously racist film Birth of a Nation, which portrayed African Americans as savage criminals and the KKK as heroic enforcers of a just and humane racial order. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and numerous religious groups, both black and white, stepped forward to condemn Wilson’s segregationist racial agenda.

^{3}

Woodrow Wilson’s second term and the First World War

Wilson ran unopposed in the Democratic primaries for the 1916 presidential election, on a platform emphasizing Progressive goals such as better protections for female workers, the elimination of child labor, and the establishment of a minimum wage. The campaign was conducted amidst the war in Europe and the Mexican Revolution, and Wilson ran on the slogan “He kept us out of war.” This would prove to be ironic indeed, as in his second term in office, the United States entered World War I. Wilson triumphed over his Republican rival in the 1916 presidential election by a slender margin.

^{4}

Wilson’s second term in office was dominated by the First World War. Wilson embraced a policy of neutrality in the European conflict, believing that the war resulted from the corrupt nature of European power politics, but German aggression ultimately made it impossible for the United States to remain on the sidelines. In May 1915, the Germans sunk the British ocean liner Lusitania, which had many Americans on board.

^{5}

Early in 1917, the Germans adopted a policy of unrestricted submarine warfare, a decision that was almost immediately followed by the revelation of the Zimmermann Telegram. The telegram pledged German support for Mexican recovery of the territories of New Mexico, Texas, and Arizona from the United States.

^{6}

The United States declared war on Germany in April 1917. In January 1918, Wilson issued his famous Fourteen Points, which laid out the long-term objectives of US involvement in the war. Wilson envisioned a postwar world in which all nations enjoyed mutual cooperation and respect, and belonged to a League of Nations that would peacefully resolve all international disputes. Due to the opposition of isolationists in Congress, the United States never joined the League of Nations. Wilson died in 1924, with his dreams for the postwar world unrealized. However, many of Wilson’s ideas and principles would be embodied in the Charter of the United Nations, which was founded after the Second World War.

^{7}

What do you think?

How would you characterize Wilson’s approach to civil rights?

Was Wilson’s Progressivism at odds with his attitudes toward race?

Why was Wilson ultimately unable to keep the United States out of the First World War?

How would you rate Wilson as a president?

Article written by Dr. Michelle Getchell. This article is licensed under a CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.

Notes

See John Milton Cooper, Jr., Woodrow Wilson: A Biography (New York: Random House, 2009).
For more on Wilson’s Progressive ideas, see Ronald J. Pestritto, Woodrow Wilson and the Roots of Modern Liberalism (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2005).
For more on Wilson’s racial policies, see Eric S. Yellin, Racism in the Nation’s Service: Government Workers and the Color Line in Woodrow Wilson’s America (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2016).
For more on the 1916 election, see Lewis L. Gould, The First Modern Clash over Federal Power: Wilson versus Hughes in the Presidential Election of 1916 (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2016).
For more on the sinking of the Lusitania, see Erik Larson, Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania (New York: Penguin Random House 2015).
For more on the Zimmermann Telegram, see Thomas Boghardt, The Zimmermann Telegram: Intelligence, Diplomacy, and America’s Entry into World War I, (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2012).
For more on Woodrow Wilson, see H.W. Brands, Woodrow Wilson (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2003).

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Jalonda Kennedy
Posted 6 years ago. Direct link to Jalonda Kennedy's post “why would they elect him ...”
why would they elect him president when he had dealings with the Ku Klux Klan??
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- michaelsluck
  Posted 6 years ago. Direct link to michaelsluck's post “Back then, it didn't matt...”
  Back then, it didn't matter as much. This was a time when African Americans had very little rights, so electing a president with ties to the Klan wasn't that surprising
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19llewellt
Posted 8 years ago. Direct link to 19llewellt's post “Why would he be elected p...”
Why would he be elected president for a second term if he had some kind of relations with the KKK?
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- George Alden, V
  Posted 7 years ago. Direct link to George Alden, V's post “Wilson was elected since ...”
  Wilson was elected since he had much of the South's support, most of the Democrat's support and he was facing 2 conservatives that split the Republican's votes in half, allowing Wilson to just get by with a win.
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Lucci
Posted 5 years ago. Direct link to Lucci's post “Why did it take two years...”
Why did it take two years after the Lusitania attack to declare war?
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- kvandusen
  Posted 5 years ago. Direct link to kvandusen's post “The US wanted to remain n...”
  The US wanted to remain neutral much like Washington's Farewell Address Warns
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ANGIE968
Posted 4 years ago. Direct link to ANGIE968's post “He didn't seem like a ver...”
He didn't seem like a very good person So why would they elect him president especially if there was people that didn't like slavery and he was apart of the ku klutz Klan?
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(5 votes)
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- David Alexander
  Posted 4 years ago. Direct link to David Alexander's post “All kinds of "not very go...”
  All kinds of "not very good persons" have become president of the United States. A phrase that often guides me when I begin to overly admire someone is, "There is none that is righteous, no, not one." You may have heard it at a synagogue or church at one time or another.
  Comment on David Alexander's post “All kinds of "not very go...”
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Leo quesada
Posted 6 years ago. Direct link to Leo quesada's post “How old would Woodrow Wil...”
How old would Woodrow Wilson be today?
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- briancsherman
  Posted 6 years ago. Direct link to briancsherman's post “Well, he was born in Dece...”
  Well, he was born in December of 1856, so he'd be 160 years old today.
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JESSICAP
Posted 7 months ago. Direct link to JESSICAP's post “Wait… if Woodrow Wilson c...”
Wait… if Woodrow Wilson came from a religious family, then why did he affiliate himself with the Klu Klux Klan? I thought religion back then was the only thing that didn’t segregate African Americans.
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(5 votes)
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- David Alexander
  Posted 7 months ago. Direct link to David Alexander's post “Religions all around the ...”
  Religions all around the world encompass people who are not perfect. Wilson's racism was undented by his religious membership and affiliation. Alas, that is true even among the most religious, and the most irreligious people. Racism is like cancer.
  Button navigates to signup page
  (5 votes)
chhuon.menglin
Posted 10 months ago. Direct link to chhuon.menglin's post “I would simply say that s...”
I would simply say that strategy that used to civil rights was characterized as discrimination because he separated the southern state which caused to have KKK and the African Americans considered criminals. As a matter ofa fact, Wilson strongly supported the idea of helping Americans be out of war. Historically, the Germans launched an invasion by sinking the British Marines which the Americans boarded too. Thereafter, it drove Wilson to wage a war the against Germans. Soon afterward, the war was still a remnant. And Wilson died without fulfilling his dream., making the American be out of war.
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A. D. Pedersen
Posted 7 years ago. Direct link to A. D. Pedersen's post “So, how come when Wilson ...”
So, how come when Wilson aligned himself with the KKK, the people didn't push him out of office? I mean, it said that tons of people didn't like Wilson's decision to join the KKK. Were there enough people that he could have been pushed out?
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- Katy
  Posted 5 years ago. Direct link to Katy's post “Wilson did not join the K...”
  Wilson did not join the KKK. He aligned himself with the KKK. He was a racist. He implemented segregation practices in the government that were more extreme than previous presidencies, but he did not join the KKK.
  There were a lot of people who did support Wilson's position with the KKK, mainly white southerners. There were also a lot of people who were more interested in Wilson's beliefs about other more imminent policies at the time, such as maintaining isolationism and progressive reform for whites, than his position on segregation. It was a very different time than now. Many Americans were worried about job security and felt threatened by immigrants and African Americans who might take their job if they go on strike for better working conditions.
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Elijah J.
Posted a year ago. Direct link to Elijah J.'s post “I believe that Woodrow wa...”
I believe that Woodrow was a good and bad president.
Is he really?
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- David Alexander
  Posted a year ago. Direct link to David Alexander's post “Like all of us, whatever ...”
  Like all of us, whatever we might be (students, video gamers, etc.), he was both good and bad.
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littlemegaboy
Posted 4 months ago. Direct link to littlemegaboy's post “If he campaigned "New Fre...”
If he campaigned "New Freedom" then why did he try to take that away from African-Americans with the KKK?
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- David Alexander
  Posted 4 months ago. Direct link to David Alexander's post “Racism operates insidious...”
  Racism operates insidiously in people. We often respond to situations and persons based on internal racist motivations that we don't realize we carry.
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  (3 votes)