Booker T. Washington to Charles W. Chesnutt, 7 July 1903

  July 7, 1903. 145 Private and Confidential My dear Mr. Chesnutt:-

I am in receipt of yours of June 27th and thank you very much for your letter. I appreciate especially your reference to my friend, Mr. Thrasher; he was a very rare and helpful man, and his place will be difficult to fill.¹

I thank you for the freedom and frankness with which you write me regarding public maters[sic] pertaining to our race.² Much that you say concerning the condition of our people in the South is true. I think there is little disagreement between us as to the actual state of affairs. In the last analysis I believe you will agree with me in this, that the Negro is like any other weak people. No one can give him strength which he does not intrinsically possess, and I fear, in one form or another, the Negro will have to continue to take his medicine until he gains material, mental, moral and political strength enough to enable him to change his present condition. If he wishes to, the strong man can always find a way to defeat the aspirations of the weaker one. That the Negro will always remain the weaker one I do not believe. With the same training I believe that the Negro will show as good results as other races, but until we do get that strength which can only come by education and experience, we shall be in an unenviable position. If a white man has upon his plantation in the South 500 Negro voters the majority of whom depend upon him for houses, for land, for food and clothing, this white man is going to []anchise of the majority of those people.   No. Chestnutt[sic]. No law passed by congress or any state can prevent it, especially when there is ignorance mixed in with their poverty. Africa with her teeming millions is as old as Europe with its millions. Why the Africans did not go and take possession of the continent of Europe as the Europeans have of the continent of Africa I do not know, but I do know in some way that the European has gotton[sic] on top in Africa just as he has in America and I fear it grows out of the fact to which I referred in the beginning, that at present at least the Negro is the weaker race. This, however, is no excuse why justice should not be meted out to the weak in he[sic] South the same as is true in the North and in the West, and if we go on agitating and educating I believe that such justice will come. You will assist in bringing it about in your way and those of us who are laboring in the South will do [?] to bring it about in our way. Our race has disadvantages in every part of the country. In the North you have Jim Crow work, in the South we have Jim Crow cars. In most sections of the North as much of a sensation would be created by a Negro going into a shoe factory or a printing office as if he went into a railroad car set aside for white people in the South. You say you have no faith in the Southern people's sense of justice so far as the Negro's rights are concerned. I have yet the most faith in the sense of justice of a large proportion of them, but just now in proportion to those who would do us wrong the number is small, but we should not condemn the good with the bad. Judge Thomas G. Jones of this state, a white Southern Democrat, is as pure, brave and honest a man and as good a friend to the Negro as any white man in this country.³

You seem to imply in your letter that I have only expressed myself and am only interested in the subject of education and property. Enclosed I send you two recent utterances of mine, one bearing upon the franchise and the other upon the subject of lynching. I say "recent utterances",   No. 3. but this does not indicate that I have not said the same thing over and over again in different words. If you would have me say any more or any less than I have said in these two utterances bearing upon lynching and the franchise I should be very glad to have you say so. I am not speaking on these subjects all the time either in the press or upon the public platform; if I were saying [?] all the time the world would pay no attention to my words when the proper time came, but whenever I feel that the proper time has come for an utterance upon any subject concerning my race I have never hesitated to give that utterance.⁴ Some have claimed that I [?] been afraid to do anything that would not please the Southern white man in the way of asserting the Negro's rights as a citizen When I accepted the invitation to dine with the President of the United States and his family it was with my eyes open.⁵ The invitation was in my hands for a day and during that period I had ample time to discuss the whole matter in all of its bearings with friends and to count the cost. Notwithstanding that I felt that in accepting this invitation I was not doing so as a personal matter but it was a recognition of the race and no matter what personal condemnation it brought upon my shoulders I had no right to refuse or even hesitate. I did my duty in the face of the opposition of the entire Southern press and at the risk of losing my own life.

I repeat I cannot understand what you or others want me to do that I have left undone. I should be very glad to hear from you [?] time on this or any other subject whenever you feel in a mood to write.

Yours very truly Chesnutt