Carolina Quotes
It will take one hundred years to eradicate this prejudice, and we must deal with it as practical men. Segregation is not humiliating, but a benefit, and ought to be so regarded by you gentlemen.

Woodrow Wilson Connected to the Carolinas

Source

As quoted in “Expunging Woodrow Wilson from Official Places of Honor,” Randy Barnett, The Washington Post, June 25, 2015, Wilson’s reply to William Monroe Trotter.

work
1920s and later
year
2015

Cite this record

“It will take one hundred years to eradicate this prejudice, …” Woodrow Wilson. Carolina Quotes, record CQ-60C2D4CE2C. https://carolinaquotes.com/quote/60c2d4ce2c

More from Woodrow Wilson

I am a most unhappy man. I have unwittingly ruined my country. A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is concentrated. The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men. We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated governments in the civilized world: no longer a government by free opinion, no longer a government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a government by the opinion and duress of a small group of dominant men.
Attributed in Shadow Kings (2005) by Mark Hill, p. 91; This and similar remarks are presented on the internet and elsewhere as an expression of regret for creating the Federal Reserve. The quotation is fabricated from out-of-context remarks Wilson made on separate occasions: — I am a most unhappy man… — Attributed by Curtis Dall in FDR: My Exploited Father-in-Law, regarding Wilson's break with Edward M. House: "Wilson … evidenced similar remorse as he approached his end. Finally he said, 'I am a most unhappy man. Unwittingly I have ruined my country.'" — A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit.… — "Monopoly, Or Opportunity?" (1912), criticizing the credit situation before the Federal Reserve was created, in The New Freedom (1913), p. 185 — We have come to be one of the worst ruled… governments…. — "Benevolence, Or Justice?" (1912), also in The New Freedom (1913), p. 201 — The quotation has been analyzed by Andrew Leonard in "The Unhappiness of Woodrow Wilson" (December 12, 2007) Salon: — I can tell you categorically that this is not a statement of regret for having created the Federal Reserve. Wilson never had any regrets for having done that. It was an accomplishment in which he took great pride. — John M. Cooper, professor of history and author of several books on Wilson, as quoted by Andrew Leonard

misattributed

My dear Swope, Your letter of yesterday interests me very deeply, I need hardly say, and furnishes much material for constructive thinking, but my present judgment is that this is not the time for formulation. If we were dealing with only one class, a statement could be made which I think would guide and stimulate rather than disturb, but just so certainly as such a statement was attempted at this time, there would spring up a grand controversy in which the selfish and exclusive interests of the country would speak loudest because through the largest number of the journals and magazines. I am afraid that, while we could easily hold our own in such a debate, this is not the wise time to start a debate which would distract attention from the matters immediately in hand and pressing for the right solution. Don’t you think there is something in that? Cordially and sincerely yours, Woodrow Wilson.
As documented in THE PAPERS OF WOODROW WILSON ARTHUR S. LINK, EDITOR Volume 46 January 16 - March 12, 1918, PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS, PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY, 1984, p.423. The above is Wilson’s reply to Swope’s letter; dated February the 23rd 1918.

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