Booker T. Washington to Charles W. Chesnutt, 31 October 1904
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Letter not rec'd
October 31, 1904.
Mr. Chas. W. Chesnutt,
1005 Williamson Bldg., Cleveland, O.
My dear Mr. Chesnutt:-
I thank you very much for the invitation to make your house my home in Cleveland.1 I wish to assure you that I appreciate your thought of me in this connection most highly. I should be glad to do so, but I find myself compelled to make a rule from which I seldom depart, and that is to stay at a hotel wherever it is possible; I have to do this for the reason that I am compelled to have my stenographer with me and have to do so much official work that I find it nearly impossible to avoid staying at a hotel as it is the best place for this kind of work. Of course I shall be very glad to call at your house and see as much of you and your family while there as I can.2
Will you be kind enough to accept for me the invitation to dine with Mr. Kline3 and make whatever arrangements you see fit, keeping in mind, however, to let Mr. Herman Moss, President of the Temple Society, know of whatever plans you make, as I am going there under his auspices.4
I thank you very much for the message which you convey to me from Mr. Kline.
Yours very truly, Booker T. WashingtonCorrespondent: 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. Booker T. Washington visited Cleveland January 11–12, 1905. He attended a banquet given by the Cleveland Council of Sociology, spoke at the Jewish Temple, at the city's Central High School, and at a banquet organized by two Black women's clubs of Cleveland, the Minerva Reading Club and the Friday Study Club. He stayed at the Hollenden Hotel. His visit and speeches were covered and commented on in the Cleveland Gazette (January 21, 1905): 1. [back]
2. Ethel Perry Chesnutt Williams (1879–1958), Chesnutt's eldest daughter, graduated from Smith College in June of 1901 and worked as an instructor at Tuskegee for the academic year 1901–1902. In the fall of 1902, she married her fiancé, Edward C. Williams (1871–1929), then head librarian at Western Reserve University in Cleveland. Their only child was Charles Waddell Chesnutt Williams (1903–1940). After several years spent in Cleveland in 1909, the Williamses moved to Washington, D.C., where Ethel continued to live and work after her husband's death in 1929; in the early 1930s, she was working as a social worker (home visitor) for Associated Charities of Washington, a poverty-relief umbrella organization. By 1939, she had remarried; her spouse was Rev. Joseph N. Beaman (1868–1943). [back]
3. Virgil P. Kline (1844–1917) was a prominent White lawyer in Cleveland and a long-time friend of Chesnutt's. For two years after passing the bar in 1887, Chesnutt worked out of the offices of Kline and his law firm partners. Kline represented Standard Oil for 30 years (including in their famous anti-trust court case in the 1890s) and also served as personal attorney to John D. Rockefeller (1839–1937), the head of Standard Oil. Kline was politically active in the Democratic party. [back]
4. Herman Moss (1874–1963) was a Jewish businessman from Cleveland who was involved with the Cleveland Temple and the Temple Society for many years. Booker T. Washington's speaking engagement for January 11, 1905 was part of the Temple Society's lecture series, the Temple Course. [back]
