The Washington herald., 1914-11-16
JEER
Wilson's name
W. M. Trotter Causes Riotous
Scene, Describing White
House Interview.
DENOUNCE SEGREGATION
Speaker at Mass Meeting Says He
Hoped Presidents View Is Not Due
to His Southern Birth.

Cheers f& speakers, jeers for the Presi-
dent, and murmurs of discomfort and
agitation were loud and insistent yes
terday when negroes OF Washington met
at Second Baptist Church to hear w. NJ.
Trotter's version OF his interview at the
White House last week-at which he vas
charged with insolence-and to protest
against segregation in government de-
partments.
Trotter was the principal speaker. In
gesture, tone, word, and manner he
aroused his audience, which crowded the
church. to cries against segregation and
cat-calls when the President was men,
toned.
Denies He Was Insulting.
In opening, Trotter looked impressively
down at reporters who had been placed
in the front row, and watched while they
wrote down:
'I emphatically deny that in language,
manner. tone in any respect or TO the
slightest degree I was impudent, insolent
or insulting to the President"
The visit to the White House by Trot-
ter and his delegation, by the way was
to ask the President to end, by executive
order. the segregation Of races in the
Postoffice and Treasury Departments.
This, II was claimed. the President prom
ised not to countenance when he was
candidate for President.
I'VE carried out our mission" said
Trotter. THE main issue for us was to
force from the President. after two
years effort. an expression Of his views
The President" Trotter said. declared
in favor OF race segregation as beneficial
to both whites and negroes"
Cries Against President.
Trotter had been cheered for fve min
utes when he took the platform to begin
his address. The early part of his speech
was interspersed with cries for TrOtter
and against the President.
Put him out" was the cry of the
negroes when Trotter mentioned the
President during a part of his intro
duction. Laughter and hooting were
INDUCED in freely by the audience. and
the hall was seldom without subdued
in some cases-cries from Trotter's
aroused auditors.
Trotter looked out. eventually. and
said:
Don't show any disrespect for the Of
fee of President; respect the Office"
Trotter. with a wealth of gesture and
insinuation, hoped that the view OF the
birth" He was confident, he said, that
the Governor of Massachusetts, would
not have deemed him insolent
The President, Trotter said, told him
that he had not heard such insolence
from any other citizen. Although he
denied being insolent. Trotter said he
was sure that no other citizen had been
doomed TO the limbo OF inferiority OF
status"
Segregation Is Denounced.
A resolution adopted protesting against
segregation was given the form of a
statement to the American people. 1t
contained this sentence:
We believe that this nation Is pass
ing through a physical and spiritual
crisis, and that the issues of life and
death will be decided ultimately when
the people OF the nation shall be called
upon in the usual way to pronounce judg-
ment for OF against the responsible gov
eminent at Washington in its unrightous
policy Of discriminating against the Cit
izenship of the country on account OF
race and color; a policy OF disCrimina-
ton that can, and will be, II adopted, ex-
tended indefinitely to the 1Ol race groups
that compose the national population"
Thomas Watkins, chairman OF the Dis
trict branch OF the Equal Rights League.
which Trotter represents, presided. Other
speakers were Maurice W. Spencer,
Judge E. NJ. Hewlett. Rev. W. Johnson.
pastor Of the church, F. Morris Murray,
T. Thomas Fortune. editor OF the Wash
iEgton Sun. and Arnold Scott.