Booker T. Washington to Charles W. Chesnutt, 25 April 1906
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M
April 25, 1906.
Mr. C. W. ChesWhen I come to Cleveland next Wednesday, May 2nd,1 I want you to meet Mr. H. G. Wells, the English Author.2 He will be at Hotel Hollenden.3
I have written Mr. Wettstein asking him to send you an invitation to the Calvary Club dinner which takes place at six o'clock that evening.4
Very truly yours,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. On May 2, 1906, Booker T. Washington spoke at a banquet of the Men's Club of Calvary Presbyterian Church—founded in 1880 for Cleveland's White elite—as part of a lecture tour in the North that included East Coast locations as well as Kansas City and St. Louis. No records survive to establish whether Chesnutt attended this banquet or whether he ever met H.G. Wells in person.[back]
2. Herbert George Wells (1866-1946) was a prominent White British writer of political commentary and science fiction, who had socialist (Fabian) leanings. From March to May of 1906, he visited the United States for the first time. Wells wrote to Washington before he left for the U.S. (March 10, 1906) to ask to meet with him, and they met in Boston for an interview. Wells's lengthy travel essay, The Future in America: A Search After Realities (1906), contains a discussion of the race question in the U.S., including Wells's observations about the mixed-race background of most African Americans and an account of his interview with Washington. "The Tragedy of Color" was the twelfth installment and appeared September 15, 1905, 1317-19.[back]
3. The Hollenden Hotel was a lavish downtown luxury hotel in Cleveland, Ohio. From 1888 to 1923, it had a large barbershop run by a prominent Black Clevelander, George A. Myers (1859–1930), who was active in local politics and a sometime correspondent of Chesnutt's. While Booker T. Washington stayed at the Hollenden on several occasions, Black guests were generally not welcome.[back]
4. F. E. Wettstein was a Cleveland banker (at the time the Vice President of the Guarantee Title and Trust Company) who was active at Calvary Presbyterian and the Cleveland Y.M.C.A.[back]
