RANKING THE WORST PRESIDENTS— DOES CIVIL RIGHTS MATTER?

RANKING THE WORST PRESIDENTS–DOES CIVIL RIGHTS MATTER?. The U.S. News and World Report has a new consensus ranking of the worst Presidents. It cites the famous 1948 poll of historians which ranked Harding worst and Grant second worst. For many years I have wondered whether it was an accident that the lowest ranking in 1948 went to two Presidents who had gotten too far out in front on rights for African-Americans. Grant as President fought a number of battles for Reconstruction. In the haste to describe Harding’s personal failings, it is rarely mentioned that, to quote the Encyclopedia Americana “In the field of civil rights he reversed Wilson’s practice of excluding from federal posts, and in Birmingham, Ala., in a speech of extraordinary boldness, he called for political, economic, and educational equality for the races.” That’s right. The speech was in Birmingham, Alabama. I see that Arthur Schlesinger Sr. who conducted the 1948 poll thought that what was most important in deciding who were the best presidents was whether they “took the side of progressivism and reform, as understood in their day.” I am afraid that the side of progressivism and reform in 1872, in 1922 and, unfortunately, in 1948 did not include speaking up for African-Americans. It is noteworthy that Rutherford B. Hayes, who ended Reconstruction, never seems to make historians’ lists of bad Presidents.