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J. Douglas Wetmore

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Judson Douglas Wetmore
Born1870
DiedJuly 30, 1930(1930-07-30) (aged 59–60)
OccupationAmerican lawyer

Judson Douglas Wetmore (died 1930) was a lawyer in Jacksonville, Florida. He and Isaac Lawrence Purcell challenged state law requiring segregated streetcars (Avery Law).[1][2]

A nasty comic of him relating to a city council election was published.[3]

He corresponded with W. E. B. Du Bois.[4] He was a childhood friend and business partner of James Weldon Johnson.[1] He wrote to Booker T. Washington.[5]

Wetmore moved to New York City with his family. He criticized discrimination at the federal level. Booker T. Washington was critical of him.[6]

James Weldon Johnson fictionalized an African American passing as white in his book, An Ex-Colored Man.[7] He advertised his office at 5 Beekman Street in New York City.[8]

He had two brothers.[9] In 1930 his health was failing and he committed suicide by shooting himself at his summer home in Greenwich, Connecticut.[10] He married twice and had three children.[10]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b "4 racial protests and riots from Jacksonville's past | Modern Cities". Moderncities.com.
  2. ^ "Lawyer Wetmore Wins the Case! · Black Virginia: The Richmond Planet, 1894-1909". Blackvirginia.richmond.edu.
  3. ^ "Political cartoon depicting J. Murdoch Barrs and J. Douglas Wetmore". Floridamemory.com. Retrieved June 5, 2022.
  4. ^ "Letter from J. Douglas Wetmore to W. E. B. Du Bois, October 20, 1903". Credo.library.umass.edu.
  5. ^ Washington, Booker T.; Harlan, Louis R.; McTigue, Geraldine R.; Harlan, Louis R. (May 30, 1981). Booker T. Washington Papers Volume 11: 1911-12. Assistant Editor, Geraldine McTigue. University of Illinois Press. ISBN 9780252008870 – via Google Books.
  6. ^ Shira Levine. ""To Maintain Our Self-Respect": The Jacksonville Challenge to Segregated Street Cars and the Meaning of Equality, 1900-1906" (PDF). Micvhiganjournalhistory.files.wordpress.com. Retrieved June 5, 2022.
  7. ^ "lection: passing strange". Tmorris.utasites.cloud.
  8. ^ "The Crisis". The Crisis Publishing Company, Inc. May 30, 1912 – via Google Books.
  9. ^ Johnson, James Weldon (April 4, 2016). The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man (International Student Edition) (Norton Critical Editions). W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 9780393614633 – via Google Books.
  10. ^ a b "Obituary for Judson Douglas Wetmore". The New York Age. 2 August 1930. p. 1.