First published 2023
Brian Kilmeade examines the partnership between President Theodore Roosevelt and educator Booker T. Washington in 1901. When Roosevelt invited Washington into his circle of advisors, the decision triggered violent racist outrage across America. Jim Crow laws had reversed gains made after slavery's abolition. Lynching increased while voting barriers multiplied for Black Americans. Many former slaves remained trapped as sharecroppers. Kilmeade traces how these contrasting figures confronted this crisis. Roosevelt came from New York wealth and privilege. Washington was born on a plantation without a surname. The author follows Roosevelt's charge up San Juan Hill with his Rough Riders, the victory that launched his presidency. He also visits Alabama, where Washington established the first Black university. Both men rejected the nation's moral decline. They believed collaboration could drive progress and that American values of liberty and hard work would lift up the oppressed. Through their principles and courage, they changed each other and built foundations for true equality.
Genres: biography, history, 20th-century, american, african-american, non-fiction, 19th-century, american-history
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-allies, unlikely-partnership
Setting: Alabama, New York
Period: 1901
368 pages · Hardcover · Sentinel
Content warnings: racism, violence