Insult Charge Denied: Colored Orators Say Leader Did Not Offend President

Title

Insult Charge Denied: Colored Orators Say Leader Did Not Offend President

Creator

The Washington Post

Identifier

CS65

Date

1914 November 16

Description

Article describing African American views on how the meeting went between President Wilson and William Trotter.

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

Provenance

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

Text

Insult Charge Denied

Colored Orators Say Leader Did Not Offend President.

Address Big Mass Meeting

Members of Delegation Which Went to White House Last Week Voice Protest of Spokesman, Whose Tone, Executive Declared Was Offensive- Denounce “Tendency to Draw Color Line.”

Members of the delegation which went to the White House last week with a protest against race segregation in government departments laid their case before a mass meeting of colored persons yesterday. The meeting adopted a formal protest to the American people against “the pronounced tendency in American law and public opinion to draw the color line.”

“We make this appeal at this time,” said the statement, “because it has been ascertained by us from the highest authority in the nation that it is the policy of the Federal Government to draw the color line, to make what the newspapers of the country denominate and denounce as ‘jim crow government.’”

Held at Second Baptist Church.

The Second Baptist Church was the scene of the gathering, and at every opportunity the hundreds of colored persons present signified their approval of the speakers. W. Monroe Trotter, who was the chief speaker, denied he had used insulting or impertinent language to the President at his interview.

“For the first time in history,” declared Trotter, “a President had pronounced his administration’s policy as one of racial discrimination. Our delegation wanted him to stop departmental segregation or say where he stood. Now, at last, after two years’ silence, he has told.”

Recalls New Jersey Visit.

Trotter then drew a picture of the different reception which, he said, Mr. Wilson had accorded a delegation from the Equal Rights League in July, 1912, when he was governor of New Jersey.

“At that time,” said Trotter, “we were received open-handed, we were Afro-Americans, over the heads of a score of ‘non-Afro-Americans’ who were waiting in the anteroom. The governor had us draw our chairs right up around him and shook out hands with great cordiality. When we left he gave me a long handclap, and used such a pleased tone that I was walking on air. What a change between then and now!”

Original Format

Newspaper Article

Files

http://resources.presidentwilson.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/CS65.pdf

Citation

The Washington Post, “Insult Charge Denied: Colored Orators Say Leader Did Not Offend President,” 1914 November 16, CS65, Race and Segregation Collection, Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library & Museum, Staunton, Virginia.