David Beito, co-author of the new book Black Maverick: T. R. M. Howard’s Fight for Civil Rights and Economic Power, was interviewed by John J. Miller for National Review Online.

JOHN J. MILLER: Theodore Roosevelt Mason Howard was a black Republican civil-rights leader — was he also in any meaningful sense a conservative?

DAVID T. BEITO: Howard was highly pragmatic but he clearly had many conservative beliefs. While he was not afraid to confront segregation head-on, he rejected socialism, communism, and governmental utopian schemes.