Comments on: Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and the civil rights movement https://thecroydoncitizen.com/history/samuel-coleridge-taylor-civil-rights-movement/ Comment, analysis & opinion Fri, 28 Sep 2018 10:05:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4.2 By: Barry Coward https://thecroydoncitizen.com/history/samuel-coleridge-taylor-civil-rights-movement/#comment-4905 Barry Coward Fri, 23 Mar 2018 19:50:00 +0000 https://thecroydoncitizen.com/?p=65293#comment-4905 Back in 2010 I made a pitch to the BBC for a drama documentary on Coleridge-Taylor. The programme idea was taken up a commisisoning editor but the channel controller was only interested in olympic related material for use in 2012 ( the centenary of Coleridge-Taylor's untimely death). During our reseach for the programme we alighted upon a report that at Coleridge-Tayor's meeting in the White House, President Theodore Rosselvelt had told Coleridge-Taylor that he believed a balck man might occupy the White house but that would take 100 year for that to happen!reported Coleridge-Taylor was very much a dapper Edwardian gentleman. It is reported that on his first trip to the USA travelling from Boston to Washington the train conductor having received a complaint from a white passenger asked Coleridge-Taylor to remove himself from the first class coach to third class as black folk were not permitted in first class. It is reported that Coleridge-Taylor replied "Sir I am Englishman". Which clealry took precedence ove the colour of his skn. The amazed conductor permitted Coleridge-Taylor to remain in his seat. Reading reports of his speeches and remarks he seems to have used his status as an English gentleman to great effect in the USA in the promotion of the rights of black folks. In my mid his conritubiton th civil rights in the USA at the start of the twentieth cnetury was in its time as significant as Martin Luther King 60 years later. Back in 2010 I made a pitch to the BBC for a drama documentary on Coleridge-Taylor. The programme idea was taken up a commisisoning editor but the channel controller was only interested in olympic related material for use in 2012 ( the centenary of Coleridge-Taylor’s untimely death). During our reseach for the programme we alighted upon a report that at Coleridge-Tayor’s meeting in the White House, President Theodore Rosselvelt had told Coleridge-Taylor that he believed a balck man might occupy the White house but that would take 100 year for that to happen!reported

Coleridge-Taylor was very much a dapper Edwardian gentleman. It is reported that on his first trip to the USA travelling from Boston to Washington the train conductor having received a complaint from a white passenger asked Coleridge-Taylor to remove himself from the first class coach to third class as black folk were not permitted in first class. It is reported that Coleridge-Taylor replied “Sir I am Englishman”. Which clealry took precedence ove the colour of his skn. The amazed conductor permitted Coleridge-Taylor to remain in his seat.

Reading reports of his speeches and remarks he seems to have used his status as an English gentleman to great effect in the USA in the promotion of the rights of black folks. In my mid his conritubiton th civil rights in the USA at the start of the twentieth cnetury was in its time as significant as Martin Luther King 60 years later.

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