1900-1919 African American history

Niagara movement and the NAACP  The Boston Literary and Historian Society that William Monroe Trotter, Booker T. Washington and other black elites organized in March of 1901 provided a forum for them to discuss race matters. While Trotter and Washington were from very different backgrounds-Trotter born free while Washington born a slave; Trotter a militant while Washington an accommodationist-they both agreed that education was essential for blacks. Trotter's camp, who called themselves "radicals," were talented, elitist, and generally better educated than Washington's followers, who were called "Bookerites." The Washington camp enjoyed the success of two organizations that supported is power, both the Afro-American Council and the National Negro Business League. Trotter knew his camp needed a radical mobilization. To fulfill this need he and his followers organized the National Negro Suffrage League in 1904 and elected James H. Hayes as president. In 1905 Du Bois invited twenty-nine anti-Bookerites blacks from all over the country to a small hotel in Fort Erie for a conference in support of freedom and growth of the black race. This group of people then formed the Niagara Movement with Du Bois as the general secretary and Trotter head of the Press and Public Opinion Committee. The movement faced many problems so in 1909 they merged with the National Association for the Advancement of Color People (NAACP). In the meantime, Trotter was a founder of the National Equal Rights League (NERL) in 1908 and worked through the organization for a number of years to agitate for blacks rights. People who were denied the right to join the NAACP had the NERL as an alternative. By 1912 Trotter and Du Bois supported Woodrow Wilson for president but found him less supportive of blacks than they envisioned. Wilson rejected black advisors, and kept blacks out of key civil service positions. D. W. Griffith's viciously racist film, The Birth of a Nation, was shown at the White House in February 1915 by arrangement of Thomas Dixon, who wrote the book on which the film was based. Although President Wilson praised the film, Trotter protested it, causing him and ten others to be jailed. This group of men attempted to ban the Boston showing, which Trotter called a rebel play. The film was banned in Chicago, St. Louis, all of Ohio, and areas in Massachusetts, the film still ran in various threaters in Boston for six and a months. When attemps were made to return the film to Boston in spring of 1921, Trotter gathered his forces plus the NAACP and the Knights of Columbus. This time he was successful in banning the film.

Booker T. Washington's success lives on:

http://vimeo.com/26549793

<Giovanni, Nikki, and Jessie C. Smith. "William Monroe Trotter." Black Heros. Canton: Visible Ink, 1997. 614+. Web.>







1910-1919 Group Action, Business, and Military
1914 Group Action: Marcus [Mozian Manaseth] Garvey, black nationalist and organizer, formed the first  black mass movement organization called the United Negro Improvement Association (UNIA). The organization aimed to united blacks under the motto "One God! One Aim! One Destiny!" Garvey was born in Jamaica. After moving to England then back to Jamica he finally came to America, and one year later established a branch of UNIA, also the headquaters of Garvey's international movement, in Harlem. In 1918, Garvey founded 'Negro World'. A weekly newspaper the spread his word. To create economic opportunities for blacks, Garvey launched the Black Star Shipping Line in mid-1919. Garvey and his stock holders later expanded the business to form a cross-continent steamship trade.

Video:
http://vimeo.com/20067556



<Franklin and Meir, Black Leaders of the Twentieth Century, pp. 104-38; Contemporary Black Biography, vol. 1 , pp. 75-78; Logan and Winston, Dictionary of American Negro Biography, pp.254-56; Katz, Eyewitness: The Negro in American History, pp.399-400; Smith, Notable Black American Men, pp. 441-45.>

1915 Automobile Industry: Frederick Douglass Patterson was the first black to manufacture cars. Between 1915 and 1919 Patterson built some thirty Greenfield-Patterson cars in Greenfield, Ohio. He was born into a family that was very successful. When Frederick was born his father had bought out his white partner and owned C. R. Patterson and Sons Carriage Company in Greenfield and made the most popular carriages of the day. Frederick's father died shortly after Frederick returned from teaching in Kentucky leaving him and relatives to operate the business. While traveling he saw some "funny-looking horseless" carriages. When he returned, his company's boards built these horseless carriages, or cars, and his bold plan resulted in the automobile known as the Patterson-Greenfield. Patterson's first car rolled off the line on September 23, 1915. The car had a forty horsepower Continental fourcylinder engine and reached a top speed of 50mph. The company's two models both sold for $850. Slow car sales led to the car company's demise. Patterson went on to produce school bus bodies that were in great demand. The bus business closed in 1939.

<"Forgotten Faces: Black Automaker among Early Trailblazers," African Americans on Wheels 2 (Winter 1996), pp.10-11;Reasons, They Had a Dream, vol. 3,p. 48.>

1917 World War I: Eugene Bullard became the first black combat pilot and was the only black pilot to fly during WWI. When the US entered war in April of 1917 Bullard, who had been a member of the French Foreign Legion and the French Army, presented himself to the army, but his applcation was not accepted. He flew for the French air service. Pressure from the American forces led to his being grounded.  For his daring flights Bullard was nicknamed the "Black Swallow of Death." He also became a highly decorated combat pilot, including receipt of the Croix de Guerre. While growing up Bullard witnessed racial atrocities, including the murder of his brother by a gang of whites. At age eight, he ran away from his home in Columbus, GA and eventually made his way to France. He fought briefly with the French at the beginning of WWII. His last job was as an elevator operator in the Empire State Building. The today show featured a segment on him in 1954. He was residing in Harlem when he died in 1961.

<Smith, Jessie Carney. "Military: World War I." 2003. Black Firsts: 4,000 Ground-breaking and Pioneering Historical Events. Detroit: Visible Ink, 2003. 460. Print.>

http://vimeo.com/20067556

http://vimeo.com/20067556