William Trotter, crusading black journalist (Washington, Woodrow, president, peace)

[Cida]

I'd just heard about him in a documentary, and now there's more.


The Legacy of a Radical Black Newspaperman
William Monroe Trotter rejected the view that racial equality could come in stages.
He spent six weeks skulking around New York, searching for a ship that would hire him, finally finding work as a scullion on a small steamer headed across the Atlantic.
The year was 1919. Trotter was one of eleven delegates who had been elected by the National Colored Congress for World Democracy to carry the concerns of African-Americans to the Versailles Peace Conference, only to have Woodrow Wilson’s Administration deny them passports. That did not stop Trotter—not very much stopped Trotter—and, alone among the eleven, he made his way to Paris.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2...k-newspaperman

[Grandstander]

From the above linked article:

Those supporters were, at one time, legion: few men have had so many friends to lose, and few have done so as efficiently. An uncompromising radical, Trotter refused to budge in his beliefs, and that rigidity eventually alienated nearly everyone in his life, straining his relationships and draining his finances. He fought not only white enemies but also would-be black allies, including Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. Du Bois.

I'm familiar with the personality type, most frequently described as being your own worst enemy. There is one in my neighborhood now, a woman who is active in an array of causes and organizations. She is smart, she is usually the best prepared person in the room, and she has no aversion to hard work. Despite these virtues, no one wants her on their side because she insists on trying to take charge of everything and demand way more than that for which everyone is willing to settle. She runs for president of all of the organizations she has joined, over and over again, and always loses by lopsided amounts. Her unbroken losing streak has not served to discourage her in the slightest. At first people think that they may be able to control her and that she will be very useful, but all those people wind up regretting the attempt.

Some are the sorts with great talents that they never allow to be harnessed in a useful manner. Trotter appears to belong to this group.

[ukrkoz]

I am presuming, all those here on the list:


https://www.forbes.com/2009/05/06/ri...l#352f406956e7


also fought tooth and nail through oppression and injustice, to get, where they are at?

[Rastafellow]

Last year I read this book about him.

Black Radical: The Life and Times of William Monroe Trotter by Kerri Greenidge

[Cida]

Originally Posted by Grandstander

From the above linked article:

I'm familiar with the personality type, most frequently described as being your own worst enemy. There is one in my neighborhood now, a woman who is active in an array of causes and organizations. She is smart, she is usually the best prepared person in the room, and she has no aversion to hard work. Despite these virtues, no one wants her on their side because she insists on trying to take charge of everything and demand way more than that for which everyone is willing to settle. She runs for president of all of the organizations she has joined, over and over again, and always loses by lopsided amounts. Her unbroken losing streak has not served to discourage her in the slightest. At first people think that they may be able to control her and that she will be very useful, but all those people wind up regretting the attempt.

Some are the sorts with great talents that they never allow to be harnessed in a useful manner. Trotter appears to belong to this group.

Right, I've known versions of that type, who alienate potential supporters for one reason or another - by their bossiness, their curtness, their refusal to compromise.