TIL that Woodrow Wilson personally rejected a proposal put forward by Japan during the Paris Peace Conference that would have confirmed the racial and ethnic equality of all people

There's plenty more contextual information you should include. Like everyone at the time was a racist. I'm not trying to defend him but literally at the time everyone was a scumbag and plenty of it had to do with being raised by scumbags in a scumbag environment. Your parent were racist, good chance you'll be racist. That cycle continued in the U.S. for so long until someone came around in the 50's and 60's and broke it.

I mean we're talking 1912, just over a hundred years ago. You can rummage around online long enough and find ads in the paper offering employment that specifically says "No Jews" Wait that's not America, we're the ones who freed Jews from the concentration camps in Germany. Yeah before WW2 America was no different than everyone else. Most WASPS wouldn't get to cozy with jews or go out of their way to help them but after WW2 we all saw the photos and footage of the atrocities that occurred over there. We became more sympathetic after seeing that cruelty. But then again we still had second class citizens our African Americans who were legally treated as lesser people for a few more decades following the war.

Which brings me back to "The Birth of a Nation" 1915 after that movie came out the KKK experienced a revitalization, a ressurection really. The second coming. Everyone and by everyone I mean anyone who ran for office had to be endorsed by the KKK to have a successful campaign. To put it into perspective at the time, imagine what would happen if GOP politicians spoke out against and criticized the NRA. Imagine that persons political future while trying to run on the GOP ticket.

And cinematic history. The Birth of a Nation was THE movie until Gone with the Wind in terms of story telling and cinematography. This being 1915 screening movies anywhere besides a movie theater was extremely rare TBoaN just happened to be the first movie ever screened at the White House unfortunately given it's subject matter. Also the movie was popular with everyone who could afford a movie ticket.

I think you should include the whole picture, Woodrow Wilson wasn't the only racist asshole in power at the time, everyone was a racist asshole. In fact if your grand parents or great grandparents were white and lived in the U.S. at that time period they were probably racist assholes. I'm not defending these people, I'm just saying please provide a greater picture everyone was a terrible piece of shit at the time.

/r/todayilearned Thread Parent Link - en.wikipedia.org