When he had become president in 1901, Theodore Roosevelt was still in full cry on the topic of race. His fellow (white) citizens lacked a proper appreciation of the perils at hand, he harangued audiences large and small, or the “courage” to do something about it. White Americans were mixing their genes too freely with other folks, inviting “race suicide.” Roosevelt badgered white women to have more (100 percent pure) white babies. This was “warfare of the cradle,” Roosevelt would say, and “fundamentally infinitely more important than any other question in this country.”
