Booker T. Washington to Charles W. Chesnutt, 22 October 1908
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October 12, 1908.1
Mr. Charles W. Chesnutt,
Williamson Building,
Cleveland, Ohio.
My dear Mr. Chestnut:
Your kind letter of October 10th has been received.2 I do not wonder that you get the impression that things are all going to the bad in the South, through what you read in the press. I am convinced that if I were to remain outside of the South, and were to get me knowledge of conditions only from what I read in newspapers, I should grow desperately discouraged. There was nothing regarding my presence in the state that had anything to do with the lynching of the two colored men.3 I happened to be near the place when the lynching occurred.4 Some shrewd newspaper reporter saw fit to hing a story upon my name, knowing in that way he would get wide circulation, and thus add to his income as a press correspondent. Of course, the two lynchings referred to were unexcusable and barbaric in the highest degree, but we must have such occurrences for a number of years. We shall have to
2
have more lynchings before matters will be gotten right in the South.
The lynching of the white lawyer in Tennessee yesterday as bad as it is will help matters.5
I started out however to say to you that, notwithstanding my optimistic nature, I feel safe in saying that if you had seen what I saw in Mississippi that you would agree with me in stating that things are far from going to the bad in that state. All things considered, aside from the use of the ballot, I do not believe there are any people in the United States prospering as the people in that state are. I was overwhelmed with surprise. In the getting of property, the building and the keeping of beautiful homes, the going into all kinds of business, in the maintenance of schools of all grades and characters, I have never seen anywhere, our people going forward to the extent that these people are.
For example, I met in Natchez, Mississippi6 a group of colored people who, in general culture, refinement, wealth, and education would excel a similar group in Boston, Cleveland, or anywhere in the North.
I never felt more like an independent citizen than [faded text]
3
I went into the city of Mound Bayou, Mississippi, and was received by a Negro Mayor, Negro Board of Aldermen, and saw a Negro man in
charge of the railroad station, and[?] Negro men and women in charge of every phase of the progress of the town and city government.7 Besides, if you were to actually go into the state, you would be surprised at the large and growing number of strong and influential white people who are in favor of justice for the Negro and are not afraid to say so.
For example, in Jackson, Mississippi,8 Vardaman9 and his element did all they could, through the newspapers and otherwise, to prevent the white people from being present at our meetings, notwithstanding that hundreds of the best white people in the town, including the Governor and Lieutenant Governor were present, the same was true throughout the state.10
The very fact of preventing an individual from going through the physical performance of casting a ballot once in two or three years cannot disturb that individual's influence. I met hundreds of colored people, who by reason of their intelligence, their wealth, their high character in the larger and more fundamental sense exert ten times as much political influence, as many ignorant and poverty-stricken white people in the state who do go through the performance of casting a ballot now and then. There are some[?] elements in life that are so fundamental and influential that they cannot be disfranchised, and I found many of these elements in Mississippi.
Enclosed I send you a few newspaper clippings from the white press that will give you some idea of their attitude. Please return these.
Of course, there is much work and hard work at that, to be done down here, but that only makes the problem the more interesting. If there was nothing to do, I should feel like getting out.
Yours very truly, Booker T. Washington N.H./Enc.11Correspondent: 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. The correct date is October 22, 1908. [back]
2. Chesnutt's letter to Washington was dated October 19, 1908. [back]
3. On October 11, 1908, two Black brothers, Jim and Frank Davis, were lynched by a White mob in Lula, Mississippi, after they allegedly shot a railroad conductor after an altercation, as they were returning from Helena, Arkansas, where Booker T. Washington had given a speech earlier in the day. The Boston Evening Transcript featured a brief report about the events ("Two Negroes Lynched," October 12, 1908: 9). [back]
4. Booker T. Washington spoke in Helena, Arkansas, just 10 miles across the Tennessee border from Lula, Mississippi, around mid-day on October 11, 1908. Washington was made aware of the lynching. [back]
5. On the night of October 19, 1908, two White attorneys, R. Z. Taylor and Q. Rankin, who had been threatened because of their involvement in establishing fishing regulations in rural Tennessee, were abducted by night-riders from a hotel in Walnut Log, Tennessee. Rankin was lynched, while Taylor escaped and was found the next day. Tennessee's governor, Malcolm R. Patterson (1861–1935), called in the state militia and offered a $10,000 reward to find the perpetrators. [back]
6. Natchez, Mississippi, is a town on the Mississippi River. In 1900 the population was 12,000 and the area (Adam County) was 80% Black. Booker T. Washington gave two speeches there on October 7, 1908. [back]
7. Mound Bayou, Mississippi, was founded in 1887 as a small independent Black community of a few hundred people. Booker T. Washington took a keen interest in the town and befriended town leader and banker Charles Banks (1873–1923). He published an article on the history of Mound Bayou in World's Work (July 1907: 25–34), and he spoke there on October 10, 1908. [back]
8. Washington spoke in Jackson, Mississippi, the state’s capital, on the evening of October 6, 1908, to about 3,000 people. He had received threatening letters and hired a private detective to provide intelligence and security detail. See Booker T. Washington Papers (Urbana, Chicago and London: University of Illinois Press, 1980), 9:642–43. [back]
9. James Kimble Vardaman (1861–1930) was a self-described White supremacist Mississippi Democrat who ran on a platform of Black voter suppression. He served in the Mississippi House of Representatives (1890–1896), as governor (1904–1908), and as U.S. Senator (1913–1919). Chesnutt references him in several unpublished speeches as an example of a racist Southern politician; see "The Race Problem" (1904) and "Age of Problems" (1906), in Charles W. Chesnutt: Essays and Speeches, ed. Joseph R. McElrath, Jr., Robert C. Leitz, III, Jesse S. Crisler (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1999): 196–204 and 238–252. [back]
10. Edmond Favor Noel (1856–1927) served in the Mississippi Senate and House, and succeeded James K. Vardaman (1861–1930) as Governor in 1908. He served one term, with Luther Manship (1853–1915) as his Lieutenant Governor. Only Lieutenant Governor Manship seems to have been present for Booker T. Washington's speech in Jackson, Mississippi. [back]
11. Nathan Hunt (18??–1932) became Booker T. Washington's stenographer and private secretary in 1895 and remained on his staff until Washington's death, often traveling with him while Emmett J. Scott (1873–1957), Washington's main secretary after 1898, stayed in Tuskegee. Hunt also served as secretary to Robert R. Moton (1867–1940), Washington's successor at Tuskegee Institute. [back]
