The President and the Negro

Mr. Wilson thus finds himself early in his administration at the parting of the ways in the matter of the negro citizen. His nomination of Mr. A.E. Patterson of Oklahoma, as Register of the Treasury, has been withdrawn at the nominee's request, and for the first time in a quarter of a century the office is to go one other than a negro. Mr. Patterson asked asked to be allowed to withdraw because of the violent opposition of  the negrophobe southern senators-- Vardaman, Tillman, Hoke Smith and the rest. That he lacked the courage to stick it out and insist on having his name passed upon is greatly to be regretted. In a sense he was recreant to his race; that he has not helped either Mr. Wilson or the colored people appears clearly from Vardaman's glorying. No negro, says the confidant senator, shall be appointed to any executive office in which there may be subordinate white employees; and his platform contains these further demands: "Segregation in all forms of Government employment; the entire separation of the races in Federal employ; negroes and white people must not be compelled to work side by side." The integrity of the Anglo-Saxon race, Mr. Vardaman adds, depends upon the "faithful consummation" of this programme.

From here.

Contrary to the inference in the article, Mr. Wilson was very much in sympathy with these views and his cabinet was stacked with racists, including persons with known ties to the Klan. After the obligatory protest for propriety's sake, Wilson swiftly broke his campaign pledge and imposed strict race segregation on the US Civil Service.