1914 November 12

Civil Rights Leader Monroe Trotter Confronts President Wilson in White House Over Segregation

 

In a meeting in the White House on this day, Boston civil rights activist Monroe Trotter got into an angry confrontation with President Woodrow Wilson over his policy of segregating federal employees. He was then told to leave the meeting.

President Woodrow Wilson imposed racial segregation in federal agencies on April 11, 1913, shortly after becoming president. Civil rights groups met with him at the White House later in 1913 to protest this action.

In general, Wilson had a very bad record on race relations. Despite the urging of many prominent people, for example, he declined to take any action in response to the race riot in East St. Louis, Missouri that began on July 2, 1917.

Learn more about Trotter: Stephen Fox, The Guardian of Boston: William Monroe Trotter (1970)

Learn more at the William Monroe Trotter Institute at University of Massachusetts Boston: http://www.umb.edu/trotter

Read about President Wilson and civil rights and civil liberties: Samuel Walker, Presidents and Civil Liberties From Wilson to Obama (2012)

Visit the National Museum of African American History and Culture here

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