Charles W. Chesnutt to Booker T. Washington, 24 February 1900
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168-C III 64 Brenton St., Cleveland, O., February 24, 1900 My dear Mr. Washington,
I am in receipt of your favor acknowledging my reviews of your book1. It was very kind of you to write, for so many good things are said of you that they are no novelty. I am glad to add my weak voice to the chorus.
I also have your letter requesting copies of my books for the Tuskegee library2. I have ordered "The Conjure Woman"3 and "The Wife of His Youth"4 sent to you, and will see that you get the others,—the "Life of Frederick Douglass."5 A visit to Tuskegee at some time in the future is one of the pleasures I look forward6. I have met a number of gentlemen who have been there, and they all agree upon the wonderful results accomplished by your labors.
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 reviewed Booker T. Washington's The Future of the American Negro (1899) twice in 1900. See "On the Future of His People" in The Saturday Evening Post and "A Plea for the American Negro" in the Critic. [back]
2. The Tuskegee Institute (now University), in Tuskegee, Alabama, evolved from the Tuskegee Normal School for Colored Teachers, founded in 1881, with Booker T. Washington as its first president. It became a leading educational institution for Blacks in the South, emphasizing teacher training and industrial education. Chesnutt, who had himself been the principal of a Black normal school in the early 1880s, first visited Tuskegee in February 1901, and remained well-informed about and personally connected with the institution all his life. [back]
3. Chesnutt's collection of short stories, The Conjure Woman, was published by Houghton, Mifflin & Company in March 1899. [back]
4. The Wife of His Youth and Other Stories of the Color Line was published by Houghton, Mifflin & Company in December 1899. It was reprinted once in 1901; in 1924, the printing plates were melted down because of low demand. [back]
5. Chesnutt's biography, Frederick Douglass, appeared in the Beacon Series of Biographies of Eminent Americans (Boston: Small, Maynard, 1899). It was the first biography after Douglass's death and the first written by an African American. [back]
6. Chesnutt lectured at the Tuskegee Institute on Februrary 19, 1901, during a research and lecture trip to the South. He described his impressions after his return in the Boston Transcript in "The Black and the White" and "The Negro's Franchise" as well as in the Cleveland Leader article "A Visit to Tuskegee". [back]
