Race Leadership Struggle: Background of the Boston Riot of 1903 Author(S): Elliott M
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Journal of Negro Education Race Leadership Struggle: Background of the Boston Riot of 1903 Author(s): Elliott M. Rudwick Source: The Journal of Negro Education, Vol. 31, No. 1 (Winter, 1962), pp. 16-24 Published by: Journal of Negro Education Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2294533 Accessed: 27-07-2016 01:08 UTC Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://about.jstor.org/terms JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Journal of Negro Education is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Journal of Negro Education This content downloaded from 128.210.126.199 on Wed, 27 Jul 2016 01:08:53 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms Race Leadership Struggle: Background of the Boston Riot of 1903* ELLIOTT M. RUDWICK Associate Professor of Sociology, Southern Illinois University Booker T. Washington and his dicta- mur! 0 times, 0 evil days, upon which torial Tuskegee Machine were challenged we have fallen! in 1901 by William Monroe Trotter, who Trotter also termed Washington a political founded the Boston Guardian in that boss who masked his machine by pretend- year. However, Trotter and the other ing to be an educator.4 He resented the Negro Radicals were almost completely Tuskegeean's connections with President unsuccessful in placing their case before Roosevelt, because the apostle of indus- the nation until they were able to per- trial education, according to the editor, suade W. E. B. Du Bois to become their opposed Negro participation in politics. leader. The Boston Riot of July, 1903, Trotter also criticized the Tuskegeean for was the incident which finally brought trusting the President, who had acted Du Bois into active affiliation with the equivocably on the lily-white question.' Radicals. The present paper will treat Furthermore, the Guardian editor accused the background of this leadership struggle Washington of being instrumental in the as well as the Boston Riot itself. appointment of a lily-white Republican to The Boston Guardian accused Booker replace a lily-white Democrat as Collector T. Washington of fathering a system of of Internal Revenue in Alabama, and the caste education,1 and Trotter charged that journalist implied that a cash reward was the Negro professional class had lost sta- expected for that political chore.' tus because of the Tuskegeean's Southern Besides editing the Guardian, Trotter surrender.2 The Guardian editor asked:' was the "spearhead of sentiment" of the To what end will your vaulting ambi- Boston Radicals,7 a group of Negroes who tion hurl itself? Does not the fear of had graduated from various New England future hate and execration, does not colleges. By the early part of 1903, the the sacred rights and hopes of a suf- lines of battle were becoming more sharp- fering race, in no wise move you? The ly drawn, and Trotter demanded that a colored people see and understand you; they know that you have marked their man support the Washingtonians or the very freedom for destruction, and yet, Radicals. He was particularly desirous of they endure you almost without mur- wooing Du Bois into the Radical camp, since the latter's academic achievements *This study was made possible through a impressed educated Negroes. grant of the Albert M. Greenfield Center of Human Relations, Philadelphia, Pa., and is a part of a full length analysis entitled, 4Boston Guardian, November 1, 1902. De- W. E. B. Du Bois: A Study of Minority cember 6, 1902. Group Leadership. Philadelphia: University 'Ruth Worthy, A Negro in Our History of Pennsylvania Press, 1960. -William Monroe Trotter, unpublished 1Boston Guardian, September 6, 1902. Sep- M.A. thesis, Columbia University, 1952, p. tember 20, 1902. 99. 2Boston Guardian, November 1, 1902. "Boston Guardian, November 15, 1902. 'Boston Guardian, September 13, 1902. "Worthy, ov. cit., p. 53. 16 This content downloaded from 128.210.126.199 on Wed, 27 Jul 2016 01:08:53 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms RACE LEADERSHIP STRUGGLE 17 According to Kelly Miller, Trotter was lieved that as a social scientist, he should sensitive to the charges of the Washing- be removed from the tumult of a leader- tonians that his position was visionary, ship struggle. According to Maude Trot- and the Guardian editor was determined ter Stewart, her brother was very frus- to set up an organizational structure to trated when he discovered that Du Bois attract wider support for social action proj- was "just not strong in wanting to fight."' ects. Miller contended that Trotter was Du Bois, worried about the growing aware of his own oratorical shortcomings cleavage between the advocates of college and8 education and industrial training, hoped began to cast about for a man of showy "to minimize the breach't2 by inviting faculties who could stand before the Booker Washington to attend the Atlanta people as leader of his cause. He wove a subtle net about W. E. B. Du Bois, University Conference on the Negro Ar- the brilliant writer and scholar, and tisan in 1902. Washington accepted, but gradually weaned him from his erst- his speech must have been offensive to while friendship for Mr. Washington, the sociology professor, since he empha- so as to exploit his prominence and sized the superfluity of college education splendid powers in behalf of the hos- tile forces. which left men unprepared for the "fund- Actually, it need not be hypothesized that amental . wealth producing occupa- Trotter hatched a cunning plot to secure tions.""8 Du Bois' assistance or that Du Bois had There is further evidence of Du Bois' become his unwitting tool. By 1902, Du uneasiness about the Tuskegeean. About Bois, while not "in absolute opposition" this time, Du Bois considered the possi- to Washington,9 had moved closer ideo- bility of an explicit division of labor be- logically to the Boston journalist. The tween Atlanta University (for empirical Atlanta professor's redefinitions essentially research) and Hampton Institute (for resulted from his increasing disenchant- practical applications). He suggested that ment with the Tuskegeean's methods and the General Education Board (and un- platforms. Du Bois could only have re- doubtedly Booker T. Washington) be ap- sponded with wratlh to a typical Washing- proached to support the plan, but he was tonian statement of that year:10 "One hesitant and wondered if he would have thousand bushels of potatoes produced by independence and "freedom" under such the hands of an educated Negro are an arrangement.14 He was also contacted worth more in solving our problems than by Booker Washington's friends, who dozens of orations or tons of newspaper articles." Nevertheless, the Atlanta Uni- 11Supplied by Mrs. Maude Trotter Stew- versity sociology professor refused to be art in an interview, May, 1954. 1"W. E. B. Du Bois to Booker T. Washing- actively and publicly anti-Washingtonian, ton, March 4, 1902: Washington Papers. not only because he did not disagree with (Lib. Con.) the Tuskegeean's Negro nationalism and '3W. E. B. Du Bois, ed., Negro Artisan (Atlanta, 1902), pp. 5-7. self-help themes, but also because he be- 14W. E. B. Du Bois, untitled manuscript, circa. 1902: Du Bois Papers. (I wish to thank Dr. Francis Broderick of Phillips-Exe- 8Kelly Miller, Race Adjustment (New ter School, who shared his transcriptions of York, 1908), p. 14. the Du Bois Papers. Dr. Broderick was 'W. E. B. Du Bois, Dusk of Dawn (New able to examine some of Du Bois' material York, 1940), p. 77. before the Negro leader closed the files to "0Boston Guardian, November 1, 1902. scholars.) This content downloaded from 128.210.126.199 on Wed, 27 Jul 2016 01:08:53 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 18 THE JOURNAL OF NEGRO EDUCATION tried to persuade him to transfer to Hamp- America." Continuing in his extrava- ton and become the editor of a new Ne- gance, and seeming all the more profuse gro periodical. Nothing came of this over- because of his contrasting treatment of ture since Du Bois demanded the right Booker T. Washington, Trotter heralded to establish editorial policy and served the essay as a fresh breeze for American notice that he would not be controlled by Negroes, and "a sufficient vindication for the "Tuskegee philosophy.""1 Other back- Negro higher training that one of its vo- ers of Washington sought to convince the taries could produce such a work of art."'8 Atlanta professor that he had a bright fu- We do not know Du Bois' reaction to ture at Tuskegee Institute, and he had a this fulsome editorial, but it would have few unsatisfactory meetings on the sub- been understandable if he was overjoyed ject with the school's founder, whom he by such a reception, especially in view of found to be taciturn and probably "sus- of the mounting atmosphere of distrust picious."1l and condemnation between him and the In September of 1902, Du Bois at- Washingtonians. Perhaps such red-car- tacked ideas to which Booker T. Wash- peting by the Boston Radicals enabled ington obviously subscribed, but the Tus- him to make his break with Booker T. kegeean was not directly named. The Washington more easily. Within a few Atlanta professor was sharply critical of months, in January of 1903, Trotter wrote those who discouraged a liberal arts edu- a front page article announcing that Du cation for Negroes.