Читать книгу Freedom Facts and Firsts - Jessie Carney Smith - Страница 57

This event took place in the context of a struggle between different approaches to racial progress for blacks at the turn of the twentieth century, epitomized in Booker T. Washington’s “Tuskegee Machine” and William Monroe Trotter, leader of the “Negro Radicals.” Two years earlier Trotter and his colleague George W. Forbes founded the Boston Guardian newspaper which directly challenged Washington’s ideas and methods. The actual confrontation between Washington and Trotter took place on July 30, 1903. At a meeting of the Boston branch of the National Negro Business League. Trotter and Forbes led a group of approximately 30 people to the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church and interrupted Washington’s speech with a series of probing questions until police were called to the scene. Trotter was arrested, fined $50, and sentenced to 30 days in jail. The incident was exaggerated in the local press as the “Boston Riot,” and Trotter was portrayed as a “martyr” by supporters for his willingness to openly challenge Washington and suffer the consequences of his actions. W.E.B. Du Bois was not present at the event, but he later joined Trotter and other radicals to establish the Niagara Movement as an alternative to Washington’s power and influence.

Fletcher F. Moon

The black community in Selma intended to move forward with or without the presence of King.