Remarks of Sen. Borah Re: Trotter Meeting
Title
Remarks of Sen. Borah Re: Trotter Meeting
Creator
Elliot, Henry W.
Identifier
CS20
Date
1914 November 13
Source
Library of Congress
Wilson Papers, Series 4, 152A Reel 231, Manuscript Division
Wilson Papers, Series 4, 152A Reel 231, Manuscript Division
Publisher
Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library & Museum
Subject
Trotter, William Monroe, 1872-1934
African-Americans--segregation
Contributor
Althea Cupo
Maria Matlock
Relation
CS20A
Language
English
Provenance
Digital copy acquired from federal archives by previous WWPL Archivist, Heidi Hackford.
Text
315 Montross Avenue
Rutherford: NJ
To the President:
Since this question has been brought up to you in that manner, I believe those remarks made in the United States Senate, and three years ago by the Hon. W. E. Borah, would be a sufficient answer to the statements of Trotter.
As Senator Borah is a good Republican leader, and very likely will be the candidate of the Republican Party in 1916, this pronouncement of Borah that the time had arrived when coddling such men as Trotter by the Republican party, should cease, is timely, now if repeated.
Henry W. Elliott
New York Press
November 13, 1914
Wilson Rebukes Negro Who ‘Talks Up’ To Him
Turns Out Visiting Delegation with Orders to Get New Spokesman.
Objects to Quiz on Segregation
President’s Remarks “Very Disappointing,” Says Object of Executive Wrath.
From the Washington Bureau of The Press.
Washington, Nov. 12- President Wilson, offended by the alleged insolent language of a Boston negro as head of a delegation that protested against segregation of the races in Government departments, sharply rebuked his caller and told the delegation if it ever hoped to get another White House audience to first get another spokesman.
Apparently not one whit-perturbed by the call-down, the negro, William Monroe Trotter, at the close of the interview with the President gathered the members of his delegation about him in the corridor outside the President’s office, and boasted that the “session” had been a “warm one.”
Asserting he had made it plain to the President that the black race was the equal of the whites under the law, he said that, replying to the President’s arguments defending segregation, he had told the President his remarks concerning racial friction were not founded on fact.
“Talked Up” to Wilson
“I told him,” said Trotter, “negroes and whites had been working side by side in the departments for fifty years, part of the times in a Democratic Administration, and that not until the present administration had segregation been introduced, and then only because of the racial prejudices of John Skelton Williams, McAdoo and Burleson.”
Rutherford: NJ
To the President:
Since this question has been brought up to you in that manner, I believe those remarks made in the United States Senate, and three years ago by the Hon. W. E. Borah, would be a sufficient answer to the statements of Trotter.
As Senator Borah is a good Republican leader, and very likely will be the candidate of the Republican Party in 1916, this pronouncement of Borah that the time had arrived when coddling such men as Trotter by the Republican party, should cease, is timely, now if repeated.
Henry W. Elliott
New York Press
November 13, 1914
Wilson Rebukes Negro Who ‘Talks Up’ To Him
Turns Out Visiting Delegation with Orders to Get New Spokesman.
Objects to Quiz on Segregation
President’s Remarks “Very Disappointing,” Says Object of Executive Wrath.
From the Washington Bureau of The Press.
Washington, Nov. 12- President Wilson, offended by the alleged insolent language of a Boston negro as head of a delegation that protested against segregation of the races in Government departments, sharply rebuked his caller and told the delegation if it ever hoped to get another White House audience to first get another spokesman.
Apparently not one whit-perturbed by the call-down, the negro, William Monroe Trotter, at the close of the interview with the President gathered the members of his delegation about him in the corridor outside the President’s office, and boasted that the “session” had been a “warm one.”
Asserting he had made it plain to the President that the black race was the equal of the whites under the law, he said that, replying to the President’s arguments defending segregation, he had told the President his remarks concerning racial friction were not founded on fact.
“Talked Up” to Wilson
“I told him,” said Trotter, “negroes and whites had been working side by side in the departments for fifty years, part of the times in a Democratic Administration, and that not until the present administration had segregation been introduced, and then only because of the racial prejudices of John Skelton Williams, McAdoo and Burleson.”
Original Format
Letter
To
Wilson, Woodrow, 1856-1924
Files
Collection
Citation
Elliot, Henry W., “Remarks of Sen. Borah Re: Trotter Meeting,” 1914 November 13, CS20, Race and Segregation Collection, Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library & Museum, Staunton, Virginia.