>> from the director of programs with a historical society we have a full room a few days before thanksgiving so if we extend a special welcome an independent nonprofit and this is to our

amazing collection into the exhibitions. and to enjoy the program if you are not already a supporter tonight b will hear about the turn of the century today he is not a household name meeting with president wilson our speaker this evening is prophetic and has a tragic life to offer a vision of frederick douglass the

professor received her greenwich including african-american history and with black consciousness during the progressive era currently director of american studies at university at the center and also very good friend one of the speakers and helped us to work on framing the series and also the commentator on a seminar last week so she is a frequent visitor. [applause] >> thank you very much.

and with the mast historical society and to take advantage for those that help to the earliest stages i would start by giving a brief outline in with the biography and its backgroun background. >> on august 21st 19 oh two black of community leaders to protest and then to prevent

for our sin. two black boys were brutally linked on charges. and then come in for his mother's house in massachusetts and then there are no guarantees in the arrival after the safety commissioner and then trotter mobilize protest that the group argued the failure and

then to invest or prosecute the recent lynching of a teenage boy trotter use the public information for specifically he referred to the case where radical black abolitionist terrified efforts to extradite. and in that case which occurred 30 years before trotter was born and that turned moral slaves into the first public black protested american history and leaving massachusetts uncompromising

protection of all of the oppressed. these protests brought much-needed attention to influence massachusetts law. and the reality and with the personal liberty laws. and after that case and with the extradition to north carolina but massachusetts remember her history and in proclaiming the roots of antebellum as justification for 20th century demands trotter shows those trends to

recognize the radical nature martha jones at the kelly carter jackson and calling for re-examination and black appellation. in 18 oh two the notion for 20th century demands with conservativism and those protest the boston globe with the possibility to rogers and the attorney general compared to the black radical past massachusetts had no legal reason for detaining rogers

and as a president of tuskegee institute and most powerful black man in the country rogers should be turned over for judgment. the school principal personally contacted the governor to advise against giving in to the uncivil demands of a local minority. and rogers attorneys with the writ of habeas corpus that they improperly investigated rogers. and then to organize those mast resistance. on harvard from 1891 to 1895 by the new england institution

and with another friend then to rally the students around protest in the 18 nineties which had massachusetts revision of the civil rights legislation. but then morgan's classmate as a gifted scholar that prompted the first civil rights group. so lewis answered trotter's calls on small yet significant class of attorneys.

unfortunately conservative accommodation triumphed over radical black demands for his protection on august 30th 19 oh two as the attorney general was the poorest to transport rogers instead put him on a train back to north carolina rogers was ordered to be in the penitentiary of 15 years but died of pneumonia four years later in 18 oh six. with those black protest that trotter and the guardian helped form international movement and with the party of

lincoln. and with the white southern violent that the gop had done little for the colored people since the collapse of radical reconstruction 20 years before the 14th and 15th amendments to the constitution under federal law with the basis of race and color and servitude focus on building lily white support the result was a republican party that was the consent of the governed and the consultant thaddeus stevens it was for northern black voters to recognize the power away from

any party or candidate and as the guardian told leaders the negro has a right for the national government in the hands of the republican party for which the negro has been in the wheel every time it has the right to enforce the constitution so who was william and roach water why was he protesting against racial conservatives in the face of radical reconstruction at the turn of the last century? most importantly of the black radical politics and the possibilities of activism at

the turn of the last century. born in 1872 liberal republicans broke with the federal enforcement of the reconstruction and died exactly 62 years later to preside over the administration between federal policy and the economy. between the failed promise of radical reconstruction trotter's life represents the radical possibility of politics with the antebellum militant and to reconceptualize that survived in existence as well as the unforgivably black and so like

all men of the generation just like his parents experience of enslavement james monroe trotter escape to ohio and climbed the banks with the commission as a lieutenant in the army. and in charlottesville virginia with people of color tied to monticello. 's brothers and sisters the spite of convergence along the former slave and the relationship between early and early 20th century with the

abolitionist was the process of symbiosis and political independence and massachusetts shape that black communities agitate for racial justice. likewise for racial justice. likewise could this order the border to shape those ties to facilitate the threat rooted in the militant movement of forties and fifties. it was for tile ground for black freedom dream and northwest ordinance over the mississippi river attracted many members for the founding generation. those farming settlements between the western appellation and the former

slaves as a story and trotter has shown many were free children of african women and men pushed out of virginia after these laws altered the terms of the early republic. virginia trotter's father was one of these children. with a jewish merchant named isaacs and his common-law wife named nancy west with substantial property in charlottesville leaving before he died also had kinship ties to monticello. tucker isaacs wife the head blacksmith from monticello and while in 1827 his wife and six

children remain enslaved. after they married in the early thirties even as tucker saved money to purchase his wife and various family members. and then with her fourth child and youngest daughter brought up crossing after tucker purchased from ohio in 1848 and often with the musket as they traveled in wagons at night from charlottesville. also her aunt wife of sally hemmings son after living with tucker isaacs.

the point is the impact of black musket with the all-black world between ohio freedom is the power of black militancy is not abstract to william monroe every summer spent at the farm and to be proudly displayed over the fireplace and the cousins were ministered in nearby cincinnati when trotter adopt the language and urged after world war ii black soldiers do like your fourfold fathers and he was not speaking rhetorically to sustain and nurture multiple generations

to claim for the colored people this is an image of the family farm in 1884 with trotter's family history provided with the necessary foundation in boston provided him with the necessary city of that thought when trotter was born considered the mecca of the negro voting since the 17 eighties and a highly literate activist or colored as they preferred to use call themselves as the son of the black elite from an early age

for those that would be free. so with resistance with racial politics with the notion of separate and white progressive insistence the negro problem is confined to the south. although trotter's politics from the boston community of which he came of age to force the provocative challenge and the white progressives that supported the work any other african-american born for trotter's understanding of the significant role outside of the jim crow south with that cultural history while

scholars have broadened the inquiry into the civil rights struggle of the mid- 20th century the northern american with resistance with the reconstruction and main scare you with that exceptionalism alongside rampant bigotry often hinges on historical paradigms on boston's path. that did not exist nor did that which reciprocated it and they were frequently up until redistricting white supremacy

looked and felt in boston like other cities the demand for federal enforcement and the intolerance that the colored people were somehow to blame for the negro problems illustrates this fact and with the mecca of the negro but the negro was rapidly losing for those forces of which he had little control. so trotter and the supporters had the power to seize control in the ballot box african-americans under constant violent assault could not control southern white supremacist but against any and all attempts to segregate

trotter launched the earliest most uncompromising fight with segregation and lynching although personal and unforgiving with the insistence of activism not accommodation. and with the most african-american in the world. and then to become synonymous. with that political mobilization. that african descended people all day developing in progressive america. with race men and women to understand the devastation and

violent segregation a form into a institution that colored people themselves defy racial justice other radical terms to use the guardian as a tool this grassroots political organization has a movement into the political landscape called the new england example. with the national dissatisfaction with the national gop at a local level. officially trotter's insistence black radicals interrogate the party system

for 21st century activist that the system is fundamentally ill-equipped for the needs of the people and to organize the first non- partisans as a significant civil-rights strategy the movement to a negro movement of his father's generation and had a far greater impact suffering from the loss of income in the high cost of guardian emerging across the black north the grass roots movement continue to mobilize black northerners and finally

as the pundits of all stripes new age american blackness social economic status african-american political the guardian's notion of colored people are a source of political strength after all as implicated the community that unique consciousness and political independence was across boston and new york this alliance of the liberty league the only organization to me during world war i and responsible to have that anti- lynching bill to northern congressmen trotter's presentation of the demands of the people great civil-rights

the legislative conscience of dc when the entire bill did not pass the demands for a colored world democracy of international scale was at the center of the wilson administration the last years provided a glimpse of the civil rights premiere. and as an outlier of white rage as a hotbed of new conflicting streams of communism and socialism. and yet by the time he died he was is more radicalized than any other populist leader of

generation not that he failed but those that aligned with his own interest but still the guardian whose political consciousness in the 20th century civil rights movement that has story on - - and those that would accept him for subjugation with the demand for racial justice if trotter's vision remains unfulfilled today that the lifework is not yet finished and is yet for racial justice. thank you. [applause] now i will open it up for questions.

>> did he commit suicide or was he pushed quek. >> all of the evidence i have found including the death certificate and the letters from his sister that he committed suicide so i begin it right at the beginning so it's not the focus of the book back then around suicide but when he was discovered in the colleagues said he had finally done that he finally jumped. but then the press responded in a way that you would not expect that he did not jump himself there was somebody

else. but when he died the moment he died all of his friends thought that he had killed himself and in 1934 was a moment he was told the guardian went bankrupt he jumped early saturday morning he was told the monday before also because the guardian had collapsed he has nowhere to live by the end of the month. and at that time was nervous exhaustion. this is the unwillingness that they committed suicide so it

points to the fact he is listed suicide. he is on forth from the right i'm sorry he is the one that is circled. [laughter] >> actually that is his mother. >> and in columbia university and migrant in harlem and a lot of the more recent research in particular the last years of his life and with that graduate student before except for those that

we know firmly who they ar are. >> so actually it was inspired by trotter and that when he died he wrote a letter to the negro world that trotter was the most noble of all the race they couldn't afford to lose many other readers so one of the things he would do to inspire word to donate money

and with the ship took to paris and then use that as a selling point and in 1919 vincent davis and then to get people to support garvey and then holds up a copy and says this is trotter's book. and did not with the movement or with a black nationalist movement and by the fact that garvey much like himself had this contentious relationship

and so they had a falling out personally. and with the pieces of the guardian. and somebody who had garnered a lot of respect. >> so the support. >> so the next question that in philadelphia and how these countries use these activities

in one of the things they argued in the book to go into places with the elite group of black men and that graduated from harvard. he knew them all. and this cohort that surrounded and the only black person on their campus but also come to hang out with trotter. and then to feel betrayed. and then to disavow the earlier activism. so one of the things they argue in the book that he

would call out the leaders in the communities. and the leader of the church in rural new york and that which protested in 1893 and start subscribing to the guardian but as part of the downfall but the guardian definitely the circulation numbers of newspapers are hard to come by that we know the

numbers at its height of 3,004,000 are a very small number people were taking pieces of the guardian and putting them in the black newspapers where they live all of that was basically the guardian they packaged it and sold that there he wasn't charging people like going to oklahoma. they say yes they are taking your word you were they are getting the profit and you are not in one of the things we point to is the notion of the black box was seen as a radical place and had a whole article in 19 oh four if

everybody else is behaving that and what is wrong with boston? and why is it this communities seem so dissatisfied. so boston had that reputation one of the tragedies of trotter's life is the great migration has a huge effect on other cities. and the same effect on boston but compared to new york boston community by 1930 so to catch the wave how other cities look. and then to reevaluate how we look at how the maitland - - the migration but is not

nearly as much as new york even though it still going on in boston but this is something that the booker t. washington paper and then to find all these instances but trotter even though they deny that. and then they publish the letter and then we all know so trotter was very good at

shaming his former colleagues and going into their territory and with the guardian and the people in that community. >> so boy he is and trotter and w e-b do boy had a crush apparently they use to dance together so damn that trotter

comes again. so he marries trotter they remain close in terms of a friendship with one another. so this conversation takes place. and then trotter actually was the first person in john the baptist said and then say that the problem is once the movement get started and they corral all of these they got mad because he was put in

charge of the niagara movement in boston. and then to sabotage that niagara movement. and that changes the way that it doesn't always succeed and then to have a good one - - to be in charge that they had a strange relation with trotter so if we just think how long that relationship was they were not close after the niagara movement fell certainly after trotter was not in the radical movement

yet and the government of world war i but after trotter's death basically dubois put trotter on the cover and had a beautiful obituary arguing that the activists were being forgotten and then forsaking in the city and then never mentioned him again publicly that that dubois may look at as the brother and then had that contentious relationship.

>> this was all primary source material i started with the guardian newspaper i had every edition that had survived the congregational library some of it is the archive but most of that the black newspapers generally will say the guardian was the most sought after to go after those papers.

and we looked at the library with a fabulous archive of history the good thing is he doesn't write a biography but he has all these letters he sends to people that are saved in these archives. and the attention to get in the academy's the most of the time they would not but then looking at the associates papers here at the mhs henry cabot lodge paper was the

antagonist trotter that that ally that trotter considers in so all these letters between the black community in boston that was somebody believed unless he had the black vote and then to say that people will not show up so that is amazing and how they voted and where they voted it is all primary source stuff. [applause]