<P> Wilson introduced segregation in federal offices, despite much protest from African - American leaders and national groups . He appointed segregationist Southern politicians because of his own firm belief that racial segregation was in the best interest of black and European Americans alike . At Gettysburg on July 4, 1913, the semi-centennial of Abraham Lincoln's declaration that "all men are created equal", Wilson addressed the crowd: </P> <P> How complete the union has become and how dear to all of us, how unquestioned, how benign and majestic, as state after state has been added to this, our great family of free men! </P> <P> In sharp contrast to Wilson, a Washington Bee editorial wondered if the "reunion" of 1913 was a reunion of those who fought for "the extinction of slavery" or a reunion of those who fought to "perpetuate slavery and who are now employing every artifice and argument known to deceit" to present emancipation as a failed venture . Historian David W. Blight notes that the "Peace Jubilee" at which Wilson presided at Gettysburg in 1913 "was a Jim Crow reunion, and white supremacy might be said to have been the silent, invisible master of ceremonies ." (See also: Great Reunion of 1913) </P> <P> In Texas, several towns adopted residential segregation laws between 1910 and the 1920s . Legal strictures called for segregated water fountains and restrooms . Jim Crow laws were a product of what had become the solidly Democratic South due to disfranchisement of blacks . </P>

Following the abolition of slavery this country enacted so called jim crow laws which