In Forgotten Legacy, Benjamin R. Justesen reveals a previously unexamined facet of William McKinley's presidency: an ongoing dedication to the advancement of African Americans, including their appointment to significant roles in the federal government and the safeguarding of their rights as U.S. citizens. During the first two years of his administration, McKinley named nearly as many African Americans to federal office as all his predecessors combined. He also acted on many fronts to stiffen federal penalties for participation in lynch mobs and to support measures promoting racial tolerance. Indeed, Justesen's work suggests that McKinley might well be considered the first ""civil rights president,"" especially when compared to his next five successors in office. Nonetheless, historians have long minimized, trivialized, or overlooked McKinley's cooperative relationships with prominent African American leaders, including George Henry White, the nation's only black congressman between 1897 and 1901. Justesen contends that this conventional, one-sided portrait of McKinley is at best incomplete and misleading, and often severely distorts the historical record. A Civil War veteran and the child of abolitionist parents, the twenty-fifth president committed himself to advocating for equity for America's black citizens. Justesen uses White's parallel efforts in and outside of Congress as the primary lens through which to view the McKinley administration's accomplishments in racial advancement. He focuses on McKinley's regular meetings with a small and mostly unheralded group of African American advisers and his enduring relationship with leaders of the new National Afro-American Council. His nomination of black U.S. postmasters, consuls, midlevel agency appointees, military officers, and some high-level officials including U.S. ministers to Haiti and Liberia serves as perhaps the most visible example of the president's work in this area. Only months before his assassination in 1901, McKinley toured the South, visiting African American colleges to praise black achievements and encourage a spirit of optimism among his audiences. Although McKinley succumbed to political pressure and failed to promote equality and civil rights as much as he had initially hoped, Justesen shows that his efforts proved far more significant than previously thought, and were halted only by his untimely death.

In His Own Words: The Writings, Speeches, and Letters of George Henry White, 1881-1918 offers a comprehensive view of the career of an African American political pioneer. The first African American to serve in the U.S. Congress in the twentieth century, George Henry White was also a renowned American orator and public servant for nearly four decades. Editor Benjamin Justesen, author of George Henry White: An Even Chance in the Race of Life-the first full-length biography of White (2001)- compiled this exhaustive supplementary collection. Known best for his 1901 farewell speech to Congress, White's varied career extended far beyond the U.S. Capitol, including a powerful role as an early civil rights leader. Beginning as a North Carolina lawyer, Republican legislator, and school principal and ending as a Philadelphia banker and assistant city solicitor, he personally touched the lives of thousands with words and deeds. White also set a rare example of selfless racial leadership during a troubled period by founding Whitesboro, the experimental New Jersey colony which still bears his name. key issues of the day, such as: the epidemic of lynching Southern disfranchisement of African American voters the dismissal of African American soldiers after the Brownsville, Texas, incident the most effective political philosophy for African Americans. In His Own Words offers a rare glimpse into the mind of a true American hero, as well as a compact, useful tool for scholars of the post-Reconstruction era of American history.