This person was a staunch supporter of white supremacy, to his death apparently. He led a media campaign at the turn of the 19-20th centuries (a time of high anti-black and other minority bias) that had the effect of overthrowing a legitimately-elected city government, brought back or strengthened racial segregation laws and turned back constitutional rights to Black Americans. As the racist devils always do, he tried to clean up his record (partially) on the eve of his death, which ironically was the year after the executive order desegregating the military was given. God only knows what havoc he would have rendered on the emerging Civil Rights Movement which picked up in the 1930s and took off as the country entered the 1950s, but was well on its march during the 1940s, often but not always blurred by the world events of the time. Josephus Daniels was a menace to society.
I took the article from Wikipedia in its entirety. My intent is not to copy but to educate, as this excerpt doesn't do full justice to the ugly story. What I hope it provides is some insight into the minds of so-called 'post-racial' society as we like to think of ourselves today. Such was also the thinking of the post-Civil War era at the time by most who wanted to forget the source of the elements of the war, and return to the status quo. The culture of late 19th and early 20th century and the legal systems of apartheid and disenfranchisement they created have many similarities (and differences pro and con) to the euphoric aroma of modern America, and what people want to believe is "progress".
Josephus Daniels was U.S. Secretary of the Navy under Theodore Roosevelt in Harry Turtledove's Great War series, an alternate history of World War I in a world where the Confederacy won its independence. The U.S. Navy named a destroyer escort after him Settling Accounts, a sequel series set in World War II. The various series in Turtledove's cycle are sometimes referred to collectively as TL-191 or Timeline 191, a reference to General Lee's lost Special Order 191 during the Antietam Campaign.
I took the article from Wikipedia in its entirety. My intent is not to copy but to educate, as this excerpt doesn't do full justice to the ugly story. What I hope it provides is some insight into the minds of so-called 'post-racial' society as we like to think of ourselves today. Such was also the thinking of the post-Civil War era at the time by most who wanted to forget the source of the elements of the war, and return to the status quo. The culture of late 19th and early 20th century and the legal systems of apartheid and disenfranchisement they created have many similarities (and differences pro and con) to the euphoric aroma of modern America, and what people want to believe is "progress".
Josephus Daniels
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Josephus Daniels | |
|---|---|
 | |
| 41st United States Secretary of the Navy | |
| In office March 5, 1913 – March 4, 1921 | |
| President | Woodrow Wilson |
| Deputy | Franklin D. Roosevelt (1913-1920) Gordon Woodbury (1920-1921) |
| Preceded by | George von L. Meyer |
| Succeeded by | Edwin Denby |
| 10th United States Ambassador to Mexico | |
| In office March 17, 1933 – November 9, 1941 | |
| President | Franklin D. Roosevelt |
| Preceded by | J. Reuben Clark, Jr. |
| Succeeded by | George S. Messersmith |
| Personal details | |
| Born | May 18, 1862 Washington, North Carolina,U.S. |
| Died | January 15, 1948 (aged 85) Raleigh, North Carolina, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse(s) | Addie Worth Bagley Daniels |
| Alma mater | Duke University University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill |
| Profession | Politician, Publisher |
Josephus Daniels (May 18, 1862 – January 15, 1948) was a newspaper editor and publisher from North Carolina who was appointed by United States President Woodrow Wilson to serve as Secretary of the Navy during World War I. He was also a close friend and supporter of President Franklin Roosevelt and served as his Ambassador to Mexico.
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[edit]Early life and career
The father of Josephus Daniels, a shipbuilder, was killed before the boy was 3. A native of Washington, North Carolina, Daniels moved with his mother and two siblings to Wilson, North Carolina after the father, whose Union sympathies were notorious, was shot and killed by a local sharpshooter when he attempted to leave with Federal forces evacuating Washington during the Civil War. He was educated at Wilson Collegiate Institute and at Trinity College (now Duke University). He edited and eventually purchased a local newspaper, the Wilson Advance. Within a few years, he became part owner of the Kinston Free Press and theRocky Mount Reporter.[1] He studied law at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and was admitted to the bar in 1885, but did not practice law. After becoming increasingly involved in the North Carolina Democratic Party and taking over the weekly paper Daily State Chronicle, he was North Carolina's state printer in 1887-93 and chief clerk of the Federal Department of the Interior under Grover Cleveland in 1893-95.
In 1888, Daniels married Addie Worth Bagley, the granddaughter of former Governor Jonathan Worth.
[edit]News and Observer
In 1894, Daniels acquired a controlling interest in the Raleigh News & Observer, which led him to leave his federal office. The paper was unabashed in its advocacy for the Democratic Party, which at the time was struggling against a fusion of theRepublicans and Populists.[2]
Daniels and other Democrats launched a "White Supremacy" campaign to appeal to racist sentiment. That led to Democratic victories in 1898 and 1900 and to the disfranchisement of African Americans. On December 15, 2005, the 1898 Wilmington Race Riot Commission noted in its draft report that Daniels' involvement in the overthrow of the elected city government of Wilmington, NC, by actively promoting white supremacy in The News and Observer was so significant that he has been referred to as the "precipitator of the riot."
Daniels later said he regretted his tactics and supported a number of progressive causes, like public education, anti child-labor laws, and banning the consumption of alcohol aboard naval vessels.
The News and Observer remained under Daniels' family control until its sale to The McClatchy Company in 1995.
[edit]
Daniels supported Woodrow Wilson in the 1912 presidential election, and after Wilson's victory was appointed as Secretary of the Navy.
Secretary Daniels held the post from 1913 to 1921, throughout the Wilson administration, overseeing the Navy during World War I. Future U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt served as his Assistant Secretary of the Navy.[3]
Secretary Daniels believed in government ownership of armorplate factories, and of telephones and telegraphs. At the end of the First World War he made a serious attempt to have the Navy permanently control all radio transmitters in the United States. If he had succeeded amateur radio would have ended, and it is likely that radio broadcasting would have been substantially delayed.[4][5]
Daniels banned alcohol from United States Navy ships in General Order 99 of 1 June 1914. This led to the folk etymology that "cup of joe" (referring to a cup of coffee) derives from Daniels' name. However, this appeared to be a myth, rather than truth.[6]
In 1917, Secretary Daniels determined that no prostitution would be permitted within a five-mile radius of naval installations. In New Orleans, this World War I directive caused the shutting down of Storyville and long-lasting consequences for servicemen and others during subsequent decades.[7]
During World War I, Daniels created the Naval Consulting Board to encourage inventions that would be helpful to the Navy. Daniels asked Thomas Edison to chair the Board. Daniels was worried that the US was unprepared for the new conditions of warfare and needed new technology.[8]
Daniels wrote The Navy and the Nation(1919), a collection of war addresses he made as Secretary of the Navy.
[edit]USS Josephus Daniels
The Navy named USS Josephus Daniels (DLG/CG-27) for the Secretary. It was in commission from 1965 to 1994. One of the recruit barracks at the Navy's Recruit Training Center in Great Lakes, Illinois is also named for him.
[edit]Later life
After leaving government service in 1921, Daniels resumed the editorship of the Raleigh News and Observer.
Daniels strongly supported Franklin Roosevelt for president in 1932.
[edit]Ambassador to Mexico
President Roosevelt appointed his former boss at the Department of the Navy as United States Ambassador to Mexico. The appointment of a friend as Ambassador was an important element of Roosevelt's "Good Neighbor Policy;" however, Daniels' arrival in Mexico City was marred by a violent demonstration when a group of Mexicans stoned the American Embassy.[9] Although the American naval bombardment in April 1914 of the Mexican Naval Academy at Veracruz was blamed on then Secretary of the Navy Daniels, he had disagreed with the act and only proceeded when ordered to by Wilson. After accepting the appointment as Ambassador to try to heal the rift the invasion had created between the two nations, his speeches and policies while serving as Ambassador to Mexico did greatly improve US-Mexican relations. He praised a proposed Mexican plan for universal popular education and, in a speech to US consular officials, advised them to refrain from interfering too much in the affairs of other nations. Daniels also favored the Loyalist cause in the Spanish Civil War, realizing that a collapse of the Spanish government would have dire affects on Mexico.
In 1941, when his son Jonathan was named a special assistant to FDR, Josephus resigned his post in Mexico to return to North Carolina and resume the editor's post at theNews & Observer and continued his outspoken editorial style.
Daniels had married Addie Worth Bagley on May 2, 1888, and the Daniels family grew to include four sons: Josephus, Worth Bagley, Jonathan Worth, and Frank A. II. After Addie Daniels died in 1943, the S.S. Addie Daniels was commissioned in her honor in 1944.
Daniels published several recollections of his years in public office. In addition to The Navy and the Nation, he wrote Our Navy at War (1922), The Life of Woodrow Wilson(1924), and The Wilson Era (1944).
Daniels, along with his son Jonathan, were passengers on Franklin Roosevelt's 1945 funeral train onwards from Raleigh, North Carolina until the burial at Roosevelt's Hyde Park, New York burial at his home, Springwood, and then back to Washington in the company of new President Harry S. Truman and Eleanor Roosevelt [10]
During the course of his life, Daniels operated several newspapers, culminating with the News & Observer, which is still in operation. He served in public office with a strong belief in improving conditions for labor and the working class. The story of Daniels' life closely mirrors that of North Carolina during the same time period. From the catastrophe of Civil War to national prominence, Daniels was a prime example of the strengths and weaknesses that marked the progress of his state. From the continuing presence of the News & Observer to the public middle school in Raleigh which bears his name (Josephus Daniels Middle School), the influence of Josephus Daniels continues to be felt. In 1941, he retired to Raleigh due to his wife's poor health. After completing a five-volume autobiography in which he expressed regret over the vicious attacks (but not the overall righteousness) of the White Supremacy campaign, he died in Raleigh on January 15, 1948 at the age of eighty-five. He is buried in Historic Oakwood Cemetery.[11] Daniels divided his shares of the News and Observer among all his children, one of whom, Jonathan Worth Daniels, became editor.[12]
Eight years after he died, the new Daniels Middle School was named after him. Daniels Hall on North Carolina State University's main campus is also named after him.[13]
[edit]Quotes
| “ | Nobody now fears that a Japanese fleet could deal an unexpected blow on our Pacific possessions…radio makes surprises impossible. | ” |
-Josephus Daniels, during a speech given at the inauguration of the North Carolina State University radio station (16 October 1922)[14]
