Trotter’s arrest over anti-Washington activism turned Du Bois from scholarship toward direct action.

Evidence

In July of 1903, Trotter and Forbes were finally able to arrange a personal confrontation with Washington at a meeting in Boston. The plan was to heckle Washington with barbed questions, aided by 30 or more others. Apparently the Boston police had been forewarned by Washington’s attorney, William L. Lewis, and Trotter was arrested when he stood to address Washington. He was fined $50.00 and sentenced to thirty days in jail. Brisbane, op. cit., pp. 38–39, 253 n. 11. “The news of Trotter’s imprisonment, in the summer of 1903, reached Du Bois at Atlanta University, where the latter was conducting classes in sociology. Like Trotter’s other friends and followers, Du Bois became incensed… . It was here that Du Bois decided to abandon his efforts to improve the Negro’s condition by ‘Scientific study.’ “Direct political and social action was to be the new strategy.” — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 2187

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the broader story of Booker T. Washington vs. W.E.B. Du Bois and the founding of the Niagara Movement — a formative origin point for organized Black radical politics.