Josephus Daniels

Josephus Daniels (born May 18, 1862, Washington, North Carolina, U.S.—died January 15, 1948, Raleigh, North Carolina) was an American editor, secretary of the U.S. Navy during World War I, and diplomat.

Daniels was a newspaper publisher in Raleigh, North Carolina, and became influential in the Democratic Party. As the editor of The News & Observer, Daniels, an unrepentant lifelong white supremacist, employed his newspaper to inveigh against Black political empowerment. In the run-up to the 1898 election, he published editorials and political cartoons that stoked whites’ racial anxiety, along with sensational “fake news,” in an attempt to lay the groundwork for Democrats to steal back control of the state government. Moreover, he played a principal role in orchestrating the coordinated effort to topple the multiracial “fusionist” government of the state’s largest city, Wilmington, and therefore bore part of the responsibility for the Wilmington coup and massacre on November 10, 1898, which resulted in the killing of as many as 60 Black people.

Daniels worked for the nomination of Woodrow Wilson for the presidency in 1912 and, upon Wilson’s election, was appointed secretary of the navy, serving until 1921. In 1933 U.S. Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed Daniels ambassador to Mexico, a post he held until 1944. The appointment was controversial, because in 1914 the U.S. Navy had bombarded the Mexican port of Tampico and had blockaded Veracruz, actions the Mexicans deeply resented. Daniels made special efforts to demonstrate his friendship for the Mexican officials and people; he eventually won their confidence and became Roosevelt’s most trusted adviser on issues affecting Mexico. When in 1938–39 Pres. Lázaro Cárdenas expropriated the properties of foreign oil corporations in Mexico, Daniels helped to prevent the incident from disrupting Mexican–U.S. relations.