"MAY I ASK THE SENATOR A QUESTION?"

SENATOR HITCHCOCK'S SPEECH INTERRUPTED BY AFRICAN AMERICAN SOLDIER IN GALLERY

Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) On November 27, 1922, an African American soldier named Lucius Jones* attempted to interrupt Senator Gilbert Hitchcock** (D-Nebraska) who was criticizing the keeping of African troops in Germany by the French.

Mr. Jones, rising from his seat in the Senate gallery, said...

"Mr. President, may I interrupt the Senator to ask him a question."

The soldier was not only denied the request, he was ejected from the gallery.

Senator Hickcock continued his speech "in which he insisted white German women had been maltreated by the colored soldiers of France."

*Lucas Jones served in the Quartermaster Corps but was recuperating from foot injuries at Mount Alto Hospital*** where he was also receiving vocational training.

**Gilbert Monell Hitchcock (1859-1934) was born in Omaha, Nebraska & graduated from University of Michigan law school.  GMH founded the Omaha World-Herald newspaper.  He served in US House of Representatives 1903-1911 & U.S. Senate 1911-1923.

***Mount Alto opened in 1919 as Public Health Service Hospital #32 located on Wisconsin Avenue.  Today it is the site of the Russian embassy.

SOURCE

"Colored Heckler Put Out of Senate Gallery," The Evening Star, Washington, D.C., November 27, 1922, Chronicling America, Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/

 

 

G.M Hitchcock

(D-Nebraska)

Harris & Ewing Photo

Library of Congress

SENATE MAY BALK AT DECLARING STATE OF WAR

JFK+50:  Volume 7, No. 2261

WILSON MAY STILL BE OPEN TO STAYING OUT OF WAR

Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) 100 years ago today, March 27, 1917, Senator Gilbert M. Hitchcock* of Nebraska, after speaking with Woodrow Wilson, said the President remained open-minded on the issue of war with Germany. 

Senator Hitchcock said...

"I do not think (the President) has reached the final conclusion that we cannot keep out of war and preserve our honor."

In a headline story in The Chicago Daily Tribune of March 28th, Arthur Sears Henning reported that President Wilson's cabinet continued discussions during the day on the possibility of war with Germany.  Mr. Henning said that the decision was made that "a reckoning with the representatives of the people assembled in congress" would be necessary to pursue that course.

President Wilson, Henning wrote, "saw the possibility of a stubborn fight against a resolution declaring a state of war with Germany."  Senator Hitchcock advised the President to "invoke an affirmation of armed neutrality by congress instead of a declaration of war."

*Gilbert Monell Hitchcock (1859-1934) was born in Omaha, NE & earned his law degree at the University of Michigan in 1881.  GMH was elected to the US House of Representatives in 1902 & the US Senate in 1911.  He became Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 1918, but was defeated for re-election in 1922 & 1930.

SOURCES

"Gilbert Monell Hitchcock," Encyclopedia.com, www.encyclopedia.com/

"Senate May Balk At War," by Arthur Sears Henning, The Chicago Daily Tribune, March 28, 1917, www.archives.chicagotribune.com/

Portrait of Gilbert Hitchcock

The World's Work