Booker T. Washington to Charles W. Chesnutt, 7 July 1908
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July 7, 1908.
My dear Mr. Chestnutt:
While it is fresh in my mind, I am sending you this word to let you know how deeply grateful I feel towards you and your family for your many acts of thoughtful kindness toward me while in Cleveland; I will ever remember them.1 I very much wish that you and Mrs. Chestnutt2 might come to Tuskegee next fall or winter, and spend some time with us here.3 I also hope you will not defer much longer the literary work which you have in mind. You have the talent and a rich field before you and in the long run I do not believe you will be hurt financially.
Since the death of Paul Laurence Dunbar, we are losing ground in that field of literature, which should be in a large measure our own.4
If you are coming to New York some time this summer, drop me a line ahead so we can arrange to spend some hours together.5 I shall be at Huntington a large part of the 2. summer.6
Kindly remember me to all the members of your family.
Yours very truly, Booker T. Washington Mr. Charles W. Chestnutt, 1105 Williamson Building, Cleveland, Ohio. L.S.L.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. Booker T. Washington spoke at the annual meeting of the National Education Association, held in Cleveland, Ohio from Jun 29–July 3, 1908, and Chesnutt arranged for his hotel accommodations. [back]
2. Susan Perry Chesnutt (1861–1940) was from a well-established Black family in Fayetteville, North Carolina, and worked as a teacher at Fayetteville's Howard School before marrying Chesnutt. They were married from 1878 until his death in 1932 and had four children: Ethel, Helen, Edwin, and Dorothy. Susan led an active life in Cleveland. [back]
3. 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]
4. Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872–1906) was born in Dayton, Ohio, published his first poem in a Dayton newspaper, and by the time of his death at age 33 of tuberculosis he had published twelve volumes of poetry and eight volumes of fiction. His poetry was internationally acclaimed, often for its use of dialect; Frederick Douglass described him as "one of the sweetest songsters his race has produced"; and his works have remained touchstones for generations of writers. [back]
5. It is unlikely that Chesnutt visited New York City or Huntington, New York, in the summer of 1908. According to Helen Chesnutt, he took a trip to New England and Canada in July of 1908 on his own and then returned to Cleveland for the rest of the summer (see Helen Chesnutt, Charles Waddell Chesnutt: Pioneer of the Color Line [Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1952], 228). [back]
6. Huntington, New York, is a town on the north shore of Long Island, 40 miles from Manhattan. From 1907 to 1910, Booker T. Washington rented the Van Wyck farm as a summer home for himself and his family. He then purchased a home nearby for the summers of 1911–1914. Chesnutt's visit in July of 1907 seems to have been the only time he saw Washington at his summer residence. [back]
