enjoy book tv now and over the weekend on c-span2. >> the presidents from public affairs, available now in paperbook and e-book. presents biographies of every president organized by their ranking, my noted historians from best to worst and features perspectives into the lives of our nation's chief executives and leadership styles. visit our website, c-span.org/the presidents. learn about the features and order your copy wherever books and e-books are sold. [inaudible conversations] >> thank you all for joining us this evening. i'm the director of programs,

exhibitions and community partnerships for the massachusetts historical society. it's nice to see a full room even though we're just a few days before thanksgiving, so thanks for coming out despite the approaching holiday fiesta. if anyone is visiting mhs for the first time i'd like to extend to them, we're a nonprofit do this through our library close to 14 million manuscript programs. we do programs for educators, and through our exhibitions and through public programs and offer remarkable diversity of programs. if you enjoy our program this evening, i hope you'll be a supporter of mhs. we'll hear about william trotter, activist in boston. although today he's not a household name.

he was meeting with president wilson and collaborating can-- with ed deboise, although i got the feeling he didn't get on with either of them. he was a seminal figure who's prophetic and often tragic life offers a link between frederick douglas and the modern era. and her research explores the role of african-american literature and the creation of radical black political consciousness during the progressive era. she's currently the interim director at tufts university and co-direct the african-american trail project at the center for study of race and democracy. she is also a very good friend to mhs. one of our speakers in our legacies of 1619 series, helped

us work on planning at that series, and she was also the commentator at the seminar last week. so she's a frequent visitor, please join me in welcoming her. [applaus [applause] >> thank you very much. can everyone here me. i wanted to say a special thanks to the historical society. i did most of my research here, combing through archives and taking advantage of the wonderful resources so i thank them for helping me in one of the many places that helped me in the earlest stages of the book. >> i'm going to start by a brief outline why william monroe trotter should be a father, forefather of black radical and deep american thought and i'll get into his biography and background and then i'll open it up for questions.

on august 21st, 1902, william monroe trotter led a group of black lawyers, ministers and community leaders to the massachusetts state house. the group was there to protest the recent arrest and upcoming extradition of a north carolina field hand named monroe rogers. trotter and his group wanted governor crane to prevent rogers' return to north carolina for arson. one year earlier in 1901, two black boys ages 14 and 17 were brutally lynched in greensboro while sitting in jail on vagrancy charges. it's no wonder he left for his mother's house in massachusetts after confronting his landlord over wages. and his barn burned down and there was no guarantee the 22-year-old black man would

receive a fair herridge. he went to brockton and arrested there one year after his arrival after north carolina's safety commissioner alerted massachusetts of rogers' whereabouts. >> trotter mobilized grass roots meetings that prompted a meeting with governor crane, the group argued that the failure of north carolina for the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment, investigate and prosecute the recent lynching of the teenage boys pre-vented rogers from a fair trial. there was a black led fight against disenfranchisement and l lynching. he referred to the case of lattimore, led by ramon, defied the efforts to extradite him. in that case 30 years before

trotter was born, black-led protests and petition. and rallies in new bedford and boston were some of the first black american protests in history. and led many to claim massachusetts, the -- these protests brought much needed attention to lattimore's faith and massachusetts's loss. abolitionist purchased his freedom while the case wound through the court and the state compliance with federal law in a previous case prompted creation of the the new england freedom association and passage of massachusetts personal liberty laws. now, 60 years after the lattimore case, william trotter in the abolitionist demand they

prevent extradition. protect those who seek refuge from southern barberiorism. and trotter shows the historical trend that recognizes the radical nature of antebellum activism. and places the black man at the citizenship. while kelly carter jackson outside of wellesley college called for a reexamination of strategic violence in the ab biggs. in 1902, the notion that militant black abolition could be repurposed to serve 20th century demand for civil rights was -- in fact, it was so

distasteful the boston globe accused trotter of straining things when he connected massachusetts responsibility to rogers, this antebellum personal liberty laws and the lattimore case. the attorney general in fact was also dismissive of comparisons to the black radical pact. he ruled that massachusetts had no legal basis for detaining rogers. and booker t washington, the most powerful black man in the country confirmed insistence that he return for judgment. and to advise him against quote, giving in to quote the unreasonable demands of bosses tiny, but vocal minority. in response, rogers' attorneys much like the radicals of old filed a rit of habeas corpus saying that north carolina inproperly indicted rogers after he left the state.

in addition trotter used his ties to fellow black bostonians to organization resistance to extraditi extradition, and hired attorneys. during harvard years, trotter cultivated bonds, morgan you see here graduated from harvard college and harvard law school where he-- another graduate friend for the prestigious prize. they rallied around segregated barber shops in cambridge in 1890's which led to massachusetts civil rights legislation. the man at the center of that case, william henry lewis was morgan's classmate at harvard law school. a gifted scholar athlete who went on to coach football.

his inability to get a haircut at a white-owned barbershop led the protests. lewis answered trotter's calls when the guardian editor calls on them to defend rogers in court. unfortunately for monroe rogers, conservative racial accommodation triumphed over radical black demands for his protection. on august 30th, 1902,s at attorney general reviewed the rit, brockton police officers who were supposed to transport rogers from boston instead put him on a train back to north carolina. there he stood trial for arson and attempted murder despite lacking an attorney and even though the white man whose barn he supposedly burned failed to testify. rogers was ordered to solitary confinement in the state penitentiary for 15 years

minimum and died of septic pneumonia four years later in 1906. although rogers was not saved by trotter, the guardian or grass roots protests, the shift in the consciousness that trotter and the guardian helped foment into black political independence. rogers case occurred at the same moment that many northern black communities questioned blind loyalty to the quote, party of lincoln. although president theodore roosevelt earned white progressive accolades and white southern's scorn, trotter pointed out the g.o.p. had done little for quote the colored people since the collapse of radical reconstruction over 20 years before. rather than enforce the 14th and 15th amendments to the constitution which established equal protection under federal law and denial of the franchise on basis of quote, race, color and previous condition of

servitude, roosevelt like mckinley and archer before him, lilly white support in the south. the republican party bore little resemblance to the consent of the governed and radicals senator summer and thaddeus steven. and for voters recognize the power to swing away from any who detrayed black demands. as the guardian told leaders soon after rogers kidnapping the negro has a right to expect the hands in the republican party, republicans of that party to which the negro has been loyal at every cost, has the right to expect that this party will take positive steps to enforce the constitution and give his rights. so who was william monroe trotter? why was he alone among contemporaries in protesting,

unapoll getically radically in the face of white reconstruction betrayal at the turn of the last century? most importantly how do his life and times demand scholarly reconcept dualization during the period that the historians say at the turn of the last century. william monroe trotter was born in 1872, the year that liberal republicans broke from their radical colleagues to oppose federal enforcement of the reconstruction amendment. he died exactly 62 years later as democratic president franklin d. roosevelt presided over an administration that fundamentally changed the relationship between federal policy and the american economy. book ended as he was, between the failed promise of radical reconstruction and the racial limitations of new deal

liberalism, william monroe trotter's life reflects northern black politics rooted in antebellum abolition. trotter's life conceptualizes as that existed in the urban predominantly northeast and black rural south. like all race, men and women are his generation, monroe trotter's politics were nurtured by his parents enslavement and quasi freedom. his father was born enslaved in mississippi escaped to ohio and climbed the ranks of the 55th massachusetts regiment one of five black men commissioned lieutenant in the army. and his mother was born free in charlottesville, virginia, the desen tent of free and enslaved people of color tied to jefferson's monticello.

and sisters were born at their maternal grandfather's farm despite a convergence between black enslavement and freedom along with former slaves called river jordan. the relationship between earlier 20th century black nationalism and ties to antebellum abolition was a product of syme biosis: it shaped his adult demand that black communities agitate, agitate, agitate as he said for racial justice and civil rights. like wise trotter's -- argued the current colonial order and facilitated the spread in the black abolitionist moment.

there was fertile ground in what kelly called black freedom dreams. for slavery north of the mississippi river which attracted many rivers of what they called african-american's founding generation. these black self-sufficient farming settlements between the western appalachian mountains and cincinnati attracted people from eastern virginia. the story trotter and others shown many of the people were free and quasi free pushed further after the laws altered the terms of black freedom in the early republic. tucker isaac, 1809-1874, virginia trotter's father and william monroe trotter's grandfather was one of these children. born free to a jewish merchant named david isaac and his mixed

race common-law wife, they owned substantial property in charlottesville that father left to their mother before he died and they had connections to monticellmonticello. the daughter of the head blacksmith and cook at monticello. a wife and six children including tucker isaac's future wife, trotter's grandmother remained enslaved. after they married in 1830's they continued to live in charlottesville with nancy west and various kin even as tucker saved money to purchase his wife, five siblingsen virginia isaac was fourth child born in charlottesville crossing between slave and free soil after tucker purchased his farm in springfield township, ohio.

she offer told her son about the muskets that she and her siblings hid beneath their feet as they traveled through the night in charlottesville. she also told monroe about her aunt julia ann, who passed into wisconsin after living in chi chi chi chi chi chillclothe. this meant that the power of black militancy in the face of white violence was not abstract to william monroe trotter. he spent every summer at his grandfather's farms where one of the muskets was proudly displayed over the fireplace and he and cousins were teachers in nearby cincinnati. thus when trotter adopted the

language of radical black self-defense, when he urged, for instance after world war ii that black soldiers, quote, do like your forefathers of old, arm yourselves and your children in name of all humanity. when he said these things he was not speaking retorically. militant self-black defense had sustained and sustained family and kin and claimed for the color people all that the south and abroad would deny. this is an image of the isaacs farm in 1994. if trotter family history and absorption of the black radical path provided him black radical thought then boston provided him with the necessary city to exercise that thought. way trotter wag born in 1872 boston was considered the mecca

of the negro, and voting since the 1780's, an and desegregated 1855 and highly literate politicalically savvy and inherently activity or colored has they preferred to call themselves led to free slavery. monroe trotter absorbed from an early age, the lord byron quote that they adopted as a mantra. the face in resistance and blackness generally, trotter's politics rejected booker t washington the notion as separate as the fingers and the insentence that the problem was to the south and that negro's themselves were beyond redemption. although trotter's politics were supported by the boston community he was raged.

the reality of life in the spoesh spokes -- more than any other born then, trotter understanding those outside of the jim crow south played at the turn of century. while recent scholars broaden into the civil rights struggle as more than a mid 20th century movement serious study of northern african-american's relationship to and rye resistance remains scarce. the site of abolition and alongside bigotry and 20th century segregation, all of these things that supposedly make boston exceptional racially hinges on paradigms that don't quite fit deeply about boston's past. did franchisement, for

instance, did not exist on the same scale in massachusetts and it did in other northern states. nor did the type of rabid anti-black violence that precipitated it. black men like james monroe trotter served in federal government across the state and frequently elected by white districts until the turn of the century. white supremacy felt different in boston than other cities, but did not mean it did not exist. intolerance to that they were somehow to blame nor america's negro problem he will straits that fact. boston might have been the mecca of the negro, but the negro was rapidly losing his citizenship rights over powerful forces over which he had little control. still trotter and boston supporters believed that black people had the power 0 to seize

control through the ballot box and public protest. african-americans under constant violent assault in the years following deconstruction collapse could not control supremacists, but could quote, fight with all thy might. trotter launched the earliest and most noncompromising fight against segregation and lynching as felt by booker washington. although his -- his insistence that activism-- that a booker t washington the most famous african-american at the time could and must be challenged. during the guardian's first decade, william trotter and colored boston as he preferred to call them became synonymous

with militancy, of the poor. the majority of african-american descended people in greater boston and across the country who rejected the deboys dialect already in racial consciousness. and these who claimed to represent the negro, looked at the bloody collapse, violent segregation, the guardian spoke to these people and they helped to turn the guardian into an institution with trotter as their coach defining racial injustice and civil rights on their own often radical terms. using the guardian as a grass roots tool before the term reached social conscienceness. there was a move to independent that affected boston's political landscape and

eventually what white commentators called the new england example. black voters exercising their dissatisfaction with the national g.o.p. by voting for democrats on a pop list and local level. they said they would interrogate rather than the american party system provide the blueprint for 20th century activists who argue the two party system is ill-equipped to address the economic and social needs of the people. as one of the first black editors to organize northern black nonpolitical bipartisanship civil rights strategy. trotter ruled a political independence movement that borrowed heavily from the movement of his father's generation. in monroe's hands it spread wider and had a far greater impact than anything his father produced. as his personal life suffered from the income from his real estate business and high cost

of running the guardian, monroe trotter was a unique political voice across the black north. while he never won in office, his politics were further left than the rest of the country and moibllizing black northerners -- finally at a time when political pundants of all stripes in 2019 claimed a new age of american blackness in which divisions the land, and regions and ethnicity, with assumptions about black american political, that ought to be a source of political strength not weakness. after all as monroe trotter inculcated his community and fellow bostonians and leaders with negro consciousness based on black led civil rights protests and independence, he created alliance across new

york leading to the liberty led congress the only civil rights organization to meet during world war i and the one chiefly responsible for introducing the anti-lynching bill to northern congressman. far from a leader in decline, william monroe trotter's presentation of quote the demands of the colored people in paris and his support for boston and harlem placed within the consciousness of d.c. for the first time since construction. although the bill did not pass, trotter's liberty league seen here and demands for colored world democracy on international scale placed new negro radicalism at wilson's new world order. far from the conservative provincial outlier are white race and accounts of red summer and the immediate aftermath

colored boston as they called themselves was a hot bed of negro nationalism committed to the often conflicting stream of activism, communism within black politics and yet by the time he died in april of 1934 william monroe trotter did more to radicalize politics in boston and across the country than any other leader of his generation. ... his lifespan is a story of america's shift from a general acceptance of black economic political and racial segregation for the radical demand for racial justice, lead and decide by black people themselves.

if his vision remained unfulfilled today it is a scientist life work is not yet finished and there are lessons to be learned from us in perfect yet battle for racial justice. thank you. [applause] and i will now take questions. yes? >> did he commit suicide or was he pushed? >> all of the evidence i found including the death certificate including letters from his sister right after he died indicating that he committed suicide and that's how i begin the book. i begins the book that way so it is laid to rest let's not the focus of the book. i think i'm back then as today there's suicide and mental health issues. when he was discovered the sister initially wrote a letter we saw in the picture with him

wrote a letter to one of their colleagues in d.c. saying he is finally done it, he finally jumped. and then when the press respond in in a way i do not think from the research you probably expected, she then started saying he did not jump himself, that he slipped on the ice, that it was suspicious. but when he died, at the moment he died on april 7, 1934, all of his friends including his sister, their response was he killed himself. in 1934 it was a moment when he was told the guardian was bankrupt. he jumps on an early saturday morning, he told the guardian is bankrupt the monday before. he's also told because the guardian has collapsed, he has nowhere to live basically by the end of the month. at that point he was being treated for what was called at the time nervous exhaustion.

and had a habit of pacing, and by the last of his life talking to himself and people were concerned. all this is to say part of i think the unwillingness of many people to say that he committed suicide is the statement that surrounds both all communities, surrounding suicide and mental health issues but all the evidence is pointing to the fact he committed suicide. yes? >> i'm wondering -- ? [inaudible] >> forth from the right, front row. there's -- he's the one who circled, yes. [inaudible] >> that is actually his mother. and his wife is next to her.

this picture is on the hubert harrison papers in columbia university. hubert harrison was a radical migrant in harlem. a lot of the images and a lot more recent research on trotter, particularly the last years of his life comes from the collection. one of the things i would dream of is paying an undergraduate or graduate student research for each of the paperwork because i have my suspicions, but except for those 34 circled those old only three we know firmly who they are. >> what was the response of trotter to the guardian? >> he was inspired by trotter. i go through this in the paper. darby wrote, when trotter died darby wrote a letter that was published both in the negro world and kind as a punching a comment on garvey in the crisis that trotter was a most noble --

what is he called? the most noble of all the race. the race could have afforded to lose many other leaders. we cannot afford to lose william monroe trotter. what are the things he would do to inspire members across the african diaspora to donate money to his black star line was that he took the ship that trotter took to paris here that ship, he turned into the black starling. the ship trotter used any use that as a selling point to the black public. there's an image in 1919 of an activist holding a rally in kingston jamaica to get people to support garvey. when people are naked human shields up a copy of the guardian associate to give money because this is trotters book. she writes this is to inspire people to get money. he had a a relationship with garvey. he did not agree with the back

to africa movement or without black nationalist movements in the way garvey expressed it. he also was very hurt by the fact that garvey much like himself i would argue had the contentious relationships with members of the black radical left, people like hubert harrison. they had a falling out personally but garvey was one of the ones who continued to publish pieces of the guardian in the negro world after trotter died and before he died. he was somebody who would garnered a lot of respect in that circle. just? >> i have two questions. one is a -- [inaudible] do you think booker t. washington wrote to the governor of north carolina supporting they bring rogers down there? that he shouldn't given?

>> yes. >> i would ask you why but that's a separate issue. second question, black population of baltimore was quite small in this era. i learned the other day philadelphia was the largest -- how did black communities and other parts of the country use the activity that's happening here in boston to consider leadership? did they consider it to radical or how was the perceived? >> one of the things trotter i argued book was one of his gifts was his ability to go into places, rally up many members of this elite group of black men who graduated from harvard or brown or colleges in new england. he knew them all. during his time at harvard he was known as the leader of this cohort that surrounded wep to boys and many of those graduates harvard or amherst or dartmouth,

they might be the only black person on the campus but they would come into boston and hang out with trotter. one of the things that made trotter feel betrayed was that many members of that class once they graduated disavowed their earlier activism. for the sake of their careers. one of the things i argue is what he was able to get into these communities that he did live in is he would call out members of his former cohort were no leaders in these communities. the leader of the ame church in pennsylvania in the early 20th century, the leader of the church in rural new york who then became a trotter convert who is gone to seminary and disavowed his activism and trotter called out but early in church says you with the person who protested 1893. why are. why are you not protesting now? he has a mea culpa and describes to the guardian.

one of the things i argue is that shamelessness was part of the strength and his downfall. but he definitely, , the guardin in the book we know in terms of circulation number and generally circulation numbers of newspapers particularly the black press hard to come by because they were not covered. we know the numbers we can substantiate is about at its height 3000-1000 newspapers per week. that's a very small number. what was happening was people were taking pieces of the guardian and putting them in the newspapers, their black newspapers way to live. oklahoma basically had its own paper. all that was basically the guardian. they just repackaged it and sold it there. part of trotters bad business sense, good comes going to oklahoma. his wife said yes, they're taking the word and they're

getting the profit and you are not. to answer your question, definitely one of the things that .2 in in the book is this notion by 1903 f 1903 black bos seen as a radical place. the independent, the major progressive magazine had all article on the boston negro in 1940 which basically argued everybody seems behaving, what's wrong with boston? a whole article on boston why is it this community seem so dissatisfied. what is wrong? when you get like people the right, they're still upset. so boston had that reputation. one of the tragedies of trotter's life is the great migration that had this huge effect on other cities, philadelphia, new york city, chicago. boston, it didn't have the same effect on boston. it's not that black people did

not come to boston, because they did. but compared to new york and philadelphia black boston community by 1930 is still relatively small. he doesn't catch that wave of how other cities looked during this time. boston doesn't have that wave of how it looks. as a storage we have to reevaluate how we look at what the great migration did to certain cities. in boston yes, you get migration from the south but it's not nearly as much as go to new york. that is when the focus shifts to new york. the case are .2, this is something the booker t. washington paper -- pointing to. chronicles very well in terms of the editor is fine office newspaper incidence of washington talking to white governors and leaders in the south. and trotter .8 out he was having this relationship even though

the public and washington is denying it. right after the incident, publishes the letter that washington had with governor aycock was the government north carolina telling him it's okay, he can go back to the south or l know you're a friend of black people. all this type of thing. trotter was very good at shaming his former colleagues who are like the black elite. not very good at maintaining good personal relationship with them. and going into their territory as they would say and riling up the community and in leaving. then the community is riled up and then the people in that community, the black leaders have to respond. >> can you say a few things about his relationship with -- [inaudible] >> yes. do boys and trotter red-hot at

the same time. trotter was an undergraduate w.e.b. du bois had a crush on and was willing -- who became trotter's wife. they used to dance the berlin which was a dance apparently the sudan together and trotter, she would be all and him and trotter would come in and she would push du bois aside. she marries trotter. they remained close in terms of friendship with one another. trotter when he came to boston often stayed in trotter's house in dorchester. and when they getting together to decide on this movement, that conversation takes place in trotter's house in dorchester. initially they are aligned to this movement so that both found it and trotter actually -- du

bois refer to him as john the baptist of movement. he's when he goes out and gets all these people to come to boston and sake we will found this new movement. the problem was once a movement get started, and they corral all of these talented members to be a member of it, trotter got mad because clement morgan his former friend, lawyer in the righteous case, du bois put you in charge of the movement in boston and trotter flipped out and basically been sabotages the niagara movement in boston. it's one of the more shameful aspects of his life. it's a moment i argue in the book really changes the way he tries to have relationship with people even though he doesn't always succeed because after that moment the niagara movement collapses and du bois basically argues we could've been a good movement. trotter is the one who selfishly wanted to be in charge was in charge and so basically founded his own organization.

but du bois had a relationship with trotter. i always point out the two-minute don't each other since they were like in the early 20s. if we just think of how long that relationship was, they were not close after the niagara movement failed. they were not close after trotter went to paris and du bois basically was not in a radical du bois moment yet and was arguing the black people need to support the government in world war i. but after trotter's death, du bois was the first one to basically stop production on the crisis, put the story is working on to the site and put trotter on the cover. and as this beautiful obituary to trotter basically arguing that he was a fine -- the activism of older being forgotten by this generation. what was status was trotter -- beautiful words, then never mentioned to begin publicly.

it's like this relationship that they had that is kind of like du bois might look at it as a brother or cousin you didn't want and you don't really like some years and of the use you really like and you support. they had that type of contentious relationship. >> one more question. >> i was wondering if you could say something about -- [inaudible] they do have good collection of the guardian papers -- [inaudible] >> this was all primary source material. the first place us to do was the guardian newspaper. i literally read everything issue that has survived. the places where it is is a boston public library, the congregation library on beacon street and then some of it is on this archive called the african-american newspaper archive but those are the only

constant places where you can get them and they are poorly preserved so you get pieces of then handprint that you can't read. but most of that from there i went into black newspapers generally and found that it would taking the guardian and will say the guardian by william trotter but we'll call it something else. i then looked a lot at personal papers of the du bois papers of course, hubert harrison papers at columbia. i looked at the moreland library at howard university which is all of these letters, by this archive of african american history in d.c. the good thing about talk is he does write anything about itself. itself. he doesn't quite like a biography but he is all of these literacy sent it to people over the years that are saved in these archives. most of the time i think this is because trotter hasn't gotten the attention he should get in

the academy to get to go into the miscellaneous papers. in other words, if you going to papers you will not find letters to trotter. sometimes you will but most of the time you will not. it's giving back to where his associates in a look at his associates papers. the other good source was here at the mhs worthy henry cabot lodge papers because lodge was an antagonist of the trotter but also the one political i wanted ally the trotter considered he had. so there's all these letters between lodge in the black community in boston, the honey fitz paper. that family is somebody who believes he could not become or make his way to the political matter in boston nic courted the black vote. so there's a lot of honey fitz and the fitzgerald papers, honey fitz saying i'm going to this rally, stay at the north and but have to make sure this is

covered in the guardian because if it's not than black people will not shelter and have lose by 200 votes. so amazing stuff. the ward records for different wards in massachusetts how people vote and when they voted and what was the population of the district in which the land. it was all primary source stuff. >> thank you very much. [applause] >> come up on c-span2, journalist lawrence weschler profiles oliver sacks. >> tonight on "the communicators" mark randolph cofound of netflix and author of the book that will never work shares his experiences starting

the online streaming service. >> on april 14, 1998 our cto hit a few keys and we were live. it didn't take long of a got that first belt in which you can begin opening bottles of champagne. then two or three minutes later ding, ding, ding three more orders and we're so excited and then we got two more orders, and in all the excitement we kind lost track of things until someone noticed that it's been a while since the bell has wrong. is it unplugged? is there a problem? it turned out in the first 15 minutes of being online we crashed all of our servers. >> mark randolph tonight at 8 p.m. eastern on "the communicators" on c-span2. >> you're watching a special edition of booktv now airing during the week while members of congress are in their districts due to the coronavirus pandemic. global history.

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