Booker T. Washington to Charles W. Chesnutt, 10 March 1904
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March 10, 1904.
Mr. Charles W. Chesnutt,
Cleveland, O.
My dear Mr. Chesnutt:-
I will try to write you more at length later, but I send a line to say that you are mistaken about the disfranchising bill having passed the Maryland Legislature. It may go through, but so[?] far it has only passed one house.1
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 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. The Poe Amendment to the Maryland Constitution, an effort to disenfranchise Black voters via a literacy test and a grandfather clause, was approved by the Maryland Senate on March 2 and the House on March 10, 1904. Opposition, led by White and Black Republicans and some Democrats, was strong and the Amendment was defeated at the general election in 1905. The Cleveland Gazette reported on the Legislature vote for the Amendment on March 12, 1904.[back]
