Historian Louis L. Gould, who wrote a study of the McKinley administration, stated that Foraker "may well have been too close to some large corporations, but he also retained some vestiges of the commitment of the Civil War generation in the North to the idea of human equality ... This prompted him to champion the cause of the Negro soldiers." According to historian Percy Murray in his journal article on the relationship between Foraker and black newspaper editor Harry Smith, Foraker's "political career ended partially because of his support for and espousal of black rights ... Perhaps Smith best summed up his alliance with Foraker when he stated that it was time for Afro-Americans to ... show full support for Foraker and men like him who supported the efforts of Afro-Americans." Walter Rucker and James Upton, in their "Encyclopedia of American Race Riots", write favorably of Foraker: