Wilson Rebukes Negro who “Talks Up” to Him

Title

Wilson Rebukes Negro who “Talks Up” to Him

Creator

Unknown

Identifier

CS20A

Date

1914 November 13

Description

Newspaper clipping from the New York Press recounting the Trotter incident.

Source

Library of Congress
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

Language

English

Is Part Of

CS20

Provenance

Digital copy acquired from federal archives by previous WWPL Archivist, Heidi Hackford.

Text

[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.

84911

“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 time in a Democratic Administration, and that not until the present Administration had segregation been introduced, and then only because of the racial prejudice of John Skelton Williams, McAdoo and Burleson.”

Original Format

Newspaper Article

To

Wilson, Woodrow, 1856-1924

Files

http://resources.presidentwilson.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/CS20A.pdf

Citation

Unknown, “Wilson Rebukes Negro who “Talks Up” to Him,” 1914 November 13, CS20A, Race and Segregation Collection, Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library & Museum, Staunton, Virginia.