The New York Times bestselling author of George Washington's Secret
Six and Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates turns to two other
heroes of the nation: Theodore Roosevelt and Booker T. Washington.
When President Theodore Roosevelt welcomed the country's most visible
Black man, Booker T. Washington, into his circle of counselors in 1901,
the two confronted a shocking and violent wave of racist outrage. In the
previous decade, Jim Crow laws had legalized discrimination in the
South, eroding social and economic gains for former slaves. Lynching was
on the rise, and Black Americans faced new barriers to voting. Slavery
had been abolished, but if newly freed citizens were condemned to lives
as share croppers, how much improvement would their lives really see?In
The Rough Rider and the Wizard, Brian Kilmeade tells the story of how
two wildly different Americans faced the challenge of keeping America
moving toward the promise of the Emancipation Proclamation.
Theodore Roosevelt was white, born into incredible wealth and privilege
in New York City. Booker T. Washington was Black, born on a plantation
without even a last name. But both men embodied the rugged, pioneering
spirit of America. Kilmeade takes us to San Juan Hill, where Roosevelt
led his Rough Riders to a thrilling victory that set the stage for a
legendary presidency, and to a small town in Alabama, where Washington
founded the first university for African Americans, paving the way for
the Civil Rights Movement. Both men abhorred the decadence and moral rot
the nation had fallen into, believed that improvement through careful
collaboration was possible, and trusted that the American ideals of
individual liberty and hard work could propel the neediest toward
success, if only those holding them back would step aside.
As he did in George Washington's Secret Six, Kilmeade has transformed
this nearly forgotten slice of history into a dramatic story that will
keep you turning the pages to find out how these two heroes, through
their principles and courage, not only changed each other, but helped
lay the groundwork for true equality.