Charles W. Chesnutt to Booker T. Washington, 25 November 1908
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CHAS. W. CHESNUTT
1105 WILLIAMSON BUILDING
CLEVELAND, O.
no. ans.
no answer sent
Cleveland, Ohio, Nov. 25, 1908.
Dr. Booker T. Washington,
Tuskegee Institute, Ala.
My dear Dr. Washington:-
I was duly in receipt several weeks ago of a long and interesting and cheerful letter from you in answer to mine of a prior date and somewhat pessimistic vein. What you say is very interesting and gives great ground for hope. I fear that there is not much hope for the negro's right in the South except along that line, for from recent indications he is going to get very small aid or comfort through the Constitution or the Supreme Court or Congress. I quite agree with the Evening Post1 that the decisions in the Berea College case2 was almost another Dred Scott decision;3‸it practically amounts to an absolute abandonment of any Constitutional protection of ‸many of the negro's rights anywhere, for what one state may do another state may do. I am delighted to see that Justice Day, from Ohio, with whom I am personally acquainted,4 dissented from the opinion of Justice Brewer, Holmes et al.5
I hope that the new President,6 who is also an Ohio man, will use his influence in favor of the fair and just and Constitutional thing.
I return herewith the newspaper cuttings which you were good enough to send me.
Very truly yours, Chas. W. Chesnutt.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 president 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. Chesnutt references "The Berea College Decision," New York Evening Post, 11 November 1908, 8, which warned that with this "latter-day Dred Scott decision," "a State may make it a crime for White and colored persons to frequent the same market place at the same time, or appear in an assemblage of citizens convened to consider questions of a public or political nature." [back]
2. In Berea College v. Kentucky (1908), the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a 1904 Kentucky state law prohibiting interracial education. Justices John Marshall Harlan (1833–1911) and William R. Day (1849–1923) dissented. Chesnutt mentions the case in two unpublished speeches, "The Race Problem," ca. 1904, and "The Courts and the Negro," ca. 1908. See Charles W. Chesnutt: Essays and Speeches, eds. Joseph R. McElrath, Jr., Robert C. Leitz, III, Jesse S. Crisler (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1999), 196–205 and 262–270. [back]
3. In Scott v. Sanford (1857), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that an enslaved man, Dred Scott (1795–1858) could not plead his case before a court of law because he was considered property, not a person. Justices John McLean (1785–1861) and Benjamin R. Curtis (1809–1874) dissented. [back]
4. William R. Day (1849–1923), from Ravenna, Ohio, was a White Republican lawyer and judge who served as Associate Supreme Court Justice from 1903 to his death. He joined John Marshall Harlan in dissenting from the majority opinion in Berea College v. Kentucky (1908). [back]
5. The majority opinion in Berea College v. Kentucky was written by David J. Brewer (1837–1910), joined by Chief Justice Melville Fuller (1883–1910) and Justices Edward D. White (1795–1847), Rufus W. Peckham (1838–1909), and Joseph McKenna (1843–1926). Justices Oliver W. Holmes, Jr. (1841–1935) and William H. Moody (1853–1917) concurred. [back]
6. William Howard Taft (1857–1930), the 27th United States President, was a Republican lawyer and judge from Cincinnati, Ohio. He served one term (1909–1913), having already served as Solicitor General and as judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. At the end of his life, he became Chief Justice of the Supreme Court (1921–1930). [back]
