Charles W. Chesnutt to Henry Clay Tyson, 20 December 1921
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December 20, 1921.
H. C. Tyson, Esq.,
2124 K. Street, N. W.,
Washington, D. C.
My dear Clay:
I have your letter with reference to Will Henderson's ambition to become recorder of deeds in Washington,1 and shall be very glad to write to the President a letter endorsing him, if that is the proper thing to do. I don't know the President personally, and have no idea how far, if at all, my endorsement would influence him.2
The President is very slow about giving appointments to colored men. He made a very fine pronouncement at Birmingham on the rights of the Negro, but he rather offset it in the second part of his speech, which was it seems to me entirely uncalled for, and had no relation to the first part at all. I hope he can be made to see the light.3
I am glad your son is prospering so nicely in Charlotte, and hope you left him and his family well.4 Give him my regards when you write. Also give my love to Jane.5
Wishing you both a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, I remain
Sincerely yours, CWC/FLCorrespondent: Henry Clay Tyson (1853—1926), a Black civil servant and activist, was Chesnutt's brother-in-law, married to Susan Chesnutt's sister Jane Beze Perry (1859—1939). Originally from Carthage, North Carolina, he graduated from the Fayetteville Normal School in 1879 and served as teacher and assistant principal under Chesnutt there (1881—1883). He moved to Washington, D. C., in 1883, worked as a civil servant and later as private secretary for Henry P. Cheatham (1857—1935), Black congressman from North Carolina (1889—1893). Tyson was also active in the Bethel Literary and Historical Association in D. C., where Chesnutt delivered several addresses between 1899 and 1913. The Tysons had three children, and the Chesnutts visited the family on at least two occasions (to give readings in 1899, and for a vacation in 1903); they also asked "Uncle Clay" for assistance in finding Helen a teaching position in Washington, D. C. in 1901. See Helen M. Chesnutt, Charles Waddell Chesnutt: Pioneer of the Color Line (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1952), 110, 165, 196.
1. William Everett Henderson (1858–1932), a Black lawyer and activist, was originally from Salisbury, North Carolina, and received his law degree from Hastings College of Law in California. He had a law practice in Wilmington, North Carolina, and played a major role in the Wilmington Coup and Massacre of 1898, afterwards fleeing with his wife Sallie Bettie (1861–1956) and his children to Indianapolis, Indiana, where he practiced law from 1899 until the time of his death. [back]
2. William Henderson did not become the Recorder of Deeds for Washington, D. C., a presidentially appointed post that had historically been given to prominent Black politicians. President Warren G. Harding (1865–1923) instead appointed the Black lawyer and Republican politician Arthur Glenn Froe (1876–1932), who held the post for eight years (1922–1930). [back]
3. On October 26, 1921, Republican President Warren G. Harding (1865–1923) had given a widely reprinted address at the celebration of the semicentennial of the founding of Birmingham, Alabama. While he endorsed political and economic equality, he explicitly rejected social equality, desegregation, and intermarriage, for which he was criticized by many Black leaders (see, for example, W. E. B. Du Bois, "President Harding and Social Equality," The Crisis 12, no. 2 [December 1921]: 53–56). [back]
4. Edwin French Tyson (1885—1962) was the son of Henry Clay and Jane Perry Tyson (who was the sister of Chesnutt's wife, Susan). Born in Fayetteville and educated in Washington, DC, Edwin graduated from Harvard in 1907; as a teenager and an undergraduate, he informally sold Chesnutt's books to Black readers in the D.C. area. He later attended Howard Medical School, and opened a practice as a general physician in Charlotte, North Carolina, in 1912. He married Ada Estelle Tate (1889—1938) in 1920; their daughter May Beze Tyson was born in 1923 or 1924. He remarried in 1943. [back]
5. Jane Beze Perry Tyson (1859—1939) was one of the sisters of Susan Perry Chesnutt, Chenutt's wife. Jane was two years Susan's senior and married Henry Clay Tyson (1853—1926) in 1879, the year after the Chesnutts's marriage. The couple had two daughters and one son, Edwin French Tyson (1885—1962), whose career Chesnutt took an active interest in. The Chesnutts stayed with Jane and Henry Tyson on at least two occasions (see Helen Chesnutt, Charles Waddell Chesnutt: Pioneer of the Color Line [Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1952], 110, 196). [back]
