Booker T. Washington to Charles W. Chesnutt, 23 February 1910
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February 23, 1910.
Mr. Charles W. Chesnutt,
Williamson Building,
Cleveland, Ohio.
My dear Mr. Chesnutt:
I am planning to send out an appeal worded practically like the enclosed for an increase of our endowment fund1 and I am writing to ask if you would permit me to use your name on this appeal in connection with that of several other prominent people, among them President Taft,2 Ex-President Roosevelt,3 Mr. Seth Low4 and others.
Yours very truly, Principal. S.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. A campaign began in February 1910 to raise at least $113,000 for Tuskegee's endowment. (See Booker T. Washington Papers, Volume 10 [Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1981], 41–42. [back]
2. 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]
3. Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) served as 26th president of the United States (1901–1909). In 1909, he supported the candidacy of his successor, William Howard Taft (1857–1930). The symbolic gesture of inviting Booker T. Washington to dinner at the White House in October 1901 met with harsh criticism in the White press. [back]
4. Seth Low (1850–1916) was a White American politician and wealthy philanthropist, who served as Republican mayor of Brooklyn (1881–1885) and briefly as mayor of New York City (1902–1903). He focused on education as a social reform tool and was president of Columbia University (his alma mater) 1890–1901. Low served on the Board of Trustees of the Tuskegee Institute from 1905 until his death (from 1907 on, as its president). [back]
