Taft had written in 1906 that the Jim Crow laws designed to codify segregation and
to disenfranchise Southern black voters were not harmful because African Americans
were not ready to use the vote well anyway. In Taft’s words, "When a class of
persons is so ignorant and so subject to oppression and misleading that they are merely
political children, not having the mental stature of manhood, then it can hardly be said
that that their voice in the government secures any benefit to them." In 1906, over
forty years after emancipation, Taft still favored a "gradual acquisition of
political power" for Southern blacks.
During the campaign, President Taft wanted to break the Democratic Party’s
stranglehold on the "Solid South," and so he appealed to Southern whites.
Just
like the other party platforms, the Republican Party Platform never mentions race. After
receiving a great deal of pressure from African Americans the Republicans did include a
statement condemning lynchings.
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