Federal protection extended to foreigners but not to lynched black citizens

Evidence

In his annual address to Congress on December 5, 1899, President William McKinley brought up the need for federal legislation to contain mob violence. He asked Congress to give the federal courts jurisdiction over the “class of international cases where the ultimate responsibility of the federal government may be involved” (under the international rule of Full Protection and Security) in order to prevent such lynchings from happening again in the future. At a time when black Americans were being lynched in far greater numbers, the president was more concerned about the federal government’s responsibility toward foreigners. Why? Because he didn’t want to keep writing checks to Italy. — Dorothy A. Brown, Getting to Reparations, 142

Categorization

• QUESTION: A strong line of evidence for selective state protection toward citizens vs foreigners — could this claim be pressed further for the reparations argument?