Charles W. Chesnutt to Booker T. Washington, 25 November 1901
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CHAS. W. CHESNUTT,
ATTORNEY-AT-LAW,
1005 WILLIAMSON BUILDING.
said had forwardedto you
11/29 CLEVELAND, O. November 25, 1901. Mr. Booker T. Washington, Tuskegee, Ala. My dear Mr. Washington:-
I have just sent a copy of my book, "The Marrow of Tradition",1 to President Roosevelt, sending under another cover a note calling his attention to it, in which I say: "It deals with the race problem in the South, and is written from a point of view which may be interesting to one who must also face that problem, and who has shown a disposition to meet it with fairness to all parties concerned. I should like to hope that you may read the book, and that you may accept it as the tribute of a co-worker in the field of letters to one who in addition to the literary gift has both impulse and opportunity for effective action in national affairs."2
I am very anxious that the President should read this book. He has shown himself very friendly, so far, to our people, and I should like to help brace him up in this particular. I know that things of this kind sent to the President are likely to escape his attention, unless it is particularly directed to them, and it has occurred to me that you might possibly be willing to drop Mr. Roosevelt a note suggesting that
CHAS. W. CHESNUTT,
ATTORNEY-AT-LAW,
1005 WILLIAMSON BUILDING.
CLEVELAND, O.
November 25, 1901.
-2-
he read the book. If you should feel any embarrassment in doing this, pray do not consider my suggestion for a moment, but if you think a line from you might prove effective in this regard, I should be pleased to have you write it.
Correspondent: Booker T. Washington (1856–1913), one of the most well-known Black activists of the early 20th century, was born into slavery in Virginia; in 1881, he became the principal of what would become the Tuskegee Institute, advocating widely as a speaker and writer for technical education for Blacks, whose entry into American industry and business leadership he believed to be the road to equality. His political power was significant, but because he frequently argued for compromise with White Southerners, including on voting rights, he was also criticized by other Black activists, especially by W. E. B. Du Bois.
1. The Marrow of Tradition was published by Houghton, Mifflin in October 1901. The novel was a thinly veiled account of the Wilmington Massacre of 1898, a White supremacist coup that overthrew an interracial city government, targeted Black elected officials, killed between 60 and possibly 300 Black citizens, and terrorized several thousand who fled the city and never returned.[back]
2. The letter to President Theodore Roosevelt is dated November 25, 1901; Booker T. Washington told Chesnutt on December 5, 1901, that he would draw Roosevelt's attention to The Marrow of Tradition, but no response by Roosevelt or his staff is recorded.[back]
