Another Re-Ranked President of the United States

For many, who don’t know history, real history, they Woodrow Wilson, the 28th President of the United States, is considered to be a “great man”.    This is because those who write history tend to ignore reality and go for the propaganda value.

Persons who have  actually studied his Presidency are often astounded by what a backwards step it was in human rights.

Woodrow Wilson came from a family which was so pro-slavery that they moved from the North to the South in 1851.   Happily, they bought slaves.  They ran a slave plantation and in 1861 family supported the Confederacy.

Racism was part of his genetic heritage, especially considering that the Confederacy lost the war, that slaves were freed, that they were given rights, allowed to vote, and in early days, held office.

This racism was proven when he became President of Princeton University in New Jersey. During his tenure not a single black student was admitted.   New Jersey is a Northern State.

As soon as he was elected President in 1912 segregation became official in federal offices.  In some offices, it was  the first time since 1863 that there was segregation.   Many people born in the 1860s, 70s, 80s, had never known segregation.   Further, all Blacks who worked for federal agencies, unless they were cleaners or maids were unceremoniously,  fired.

Full racial segregation was implemented in Washington D.C., the Capital of the United States.

In his book, History of the American People Woodrow Wilson lauded the Ku Klux Klan. His words were enshrined in the movie, Birth of a Nation;

“The white men were roused by a mere instinct of
self-preservation… until at last there sprung into
existence a Great Ku Klux Klan a vertiable empire
of the South, to protect the Southern country.”

This was written by the President of the United States, not some working class farm hand in Georgia.

Wilson was anti-immigrant,  although on a few occasions he backed off when it would lose him votes.

He implemented the draft, which forced Americans into the Military.   He implemented drug prohibitions which caused a great deal of dislocation and police activity.  He had the Federal government take control of the Railroads to prevent strikes.   He suppressed the anti-war movement and Women’s suffrage movement.

He was a dictator who stretched his powers to the limit.   He felt no pity or remorse until  the world became aware of the political prisoners filling American jails.    It became a major talking point that the leader of the ‘Free World’ was more repressive than the dictators the United States fought against.

It was only at the very end of his second term, that President Wilson signed the Bill to extend the franchise to women.   He did it due to the bad press the United States was receiving from the rest of the world.

The terms of the treaty of Versailles, for which he proudly took credit for, led inexorably to the Second World War.    The penalties laid against Germany for the First World I did nothing but stir up anger, create great hardship, and many historians are convinced that had the Treat of Versailles not been as punitive, the Second World War would not have happened.

The Huffington Post recently ranked him 42nd out of 44 while less liberal put him in the top 15 because it is very unimportant to them that segregation was re-introduced, that women were imprisoned and tortured for demanding the right to vote,  and that the Treaty of Versailles caused World War II