Racism in the Nation's Service: Government Workers and the Color Line in Woodrow Wilson's America

by Eric S. Yellin

Overview

Between the 1880s and 1910s, thousands of African Americans passed civil service exams and became employed in the executive offices of the federal government. However, by 1920, promotions to well-paying federal jobs had nearly vanished for black workers. Eric S. Yellin argues that the Wilson administration's successful 1913 drive to segregate the federal government was a pivotal episode in the age of progressive politics. Yellin investigates how the enactment of this policy, based on Progressives' demands for whiteness in government, imposed a color line on American opportunity and implicated Washington in the economic limitation of African Americans for decades to come.
Using vivid accounts of the struggles and protests of African American government employees, Yellin reveals the racism at the heart of the era's reform politics. He illuminates the nineteenth-century world of black professional labor and social mobility in Washington, D.C., and uncovers the Wilson administration's progressive justifications for unraveling that world. From the hopeful days following emancipation to the white-supremacist "normalcy" of the 1920s, Yellin traces the competing political ideas, politicians, and ordinary government workers who created "federal segregation."

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781469607214
Publisher:	The University of North Carolina Press
Publication date:	04/22/2013
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	320
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

Eric S. Yellin is associate professor of history and American studies at the University of Richmond.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

This is a highly readable and compelling narrative based on extraordinary research. Yellin fills in a crucial gap in the history of sanctioned segregation and its effect between Plessy and Brown and illuminates a crucial shift in the way institutional racism worked and was largely accepted, despite extensive efforts to prevent it from taking hold. This is a story manifestly worth telling, and Yellin does so in outstanding fashion.—Howard Gillette Jr., Rutgers University-Camden

The best book yet written on the segregationist racial politics of Woodrow Wilson's presidency and their devastating effects on Washington's accomplished and proud black community. A powerful and tragic story, exquisitely crafted and movingly told.—Gary Gerstle, author of American Crucible: Race and Nation in the Twentieth Century

Emphasizing the complexity and devastating impact of institutional racism, Yellin's pathbreaking study sheds new light on Wilsonian progressivism, public sector employment, and early-twentieth-century civil rights activism. Deeply researched, dazzlingly well written, and persuasively argued, Racism in the Nation's Service is an important book that deserves a wide audience.—Kate Masur, author of An Example for All the Land: Emancipation and the Struggle over Equality in Washington, D.C.

Editorial Reviews

"This is a highly readable and compelling narrative based on extraordinary research. Yellin fills in a crucial gap in the history of sanctioned segregation and its effect between Plessy and Brown and illuminates a crucial shift in the way institutional racism worked and was largely accepted, despite extensive efforts to prevent it from taking hold. This is a story manifestly worth telling, and Yellin does so in outstanding fashion."—Howard Gillette Jr., Rutgers University-Camden

“Yellin makes an important contribution to our understanding of ‘white supremacy.’” — Journal of Interdisciplinary History

“This is an excellent, well-researched, and well-written study. Yellin’s diverse sources are impressive as is his ability to weave them into a tight analysis.” — Journal of American History

“Yellin’s well-written treatise reminds readers how far the U.S. has come in its quest for racial equality. Recommended. Most levels/libraries.” — CHOICE

“A very compelling read.” — History: Reviews of New Books

“[A] thoroughly researched and artfully crafted book.” — Register of the Kentucky Historical Society

“Yellin’s work is lucid and illuminating. He provides a thorough, readable, and well-rounded narrative filled with vivid examples and sharp analysis.” — Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era

“Excellent new book.” — Journal of Southern History

“His nuanced and sober book carefully chronicles the rationales and practices of racial subordination in the realm of federal employment and the personal and collective consequences that this unfolding tragedy had on the lives of black Washingtonians.” — Journal of Southern History

“Yellin’s scholarship fills an important gap in our understanding of what Wilsonian progressivism was all about . . . but also explores less well understood connections between racism, progressive politics, and the state.” — American Historical Review

“Carefully researched and well-written. . . . [Yellin’s] book deserves a wide reading among scholars and students of labor and race in the twentieth century.” — Labor

From the Publisher