Charles W. Chesnutt to Booker T. Washington
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Hotel Belleclaire
BROADWAY AND 77TH ST.
ALBERT R KEEN
My dear Dr. Washington,
I am in New York for about a week,1 and am staying at this very pretty hotel, Broadway & 77th St.2 I shall be very glad to meet you, if I can find out when you will be in the city & where, or at what times you are likely to be at home.3
Yours cordially, Chas. W. Chesnutt Dr. B T. Washington.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. In late July and early August 1907, Chesnutt traveled to New York City, residing at the Hotel Belleclaire and visiting Booker T. Washington and his family at his summer home in Huntington, New York, on Long Island. [back]
2. The Belleclaire was a 10-story luxury apartment hotel that opened in 1903 at Broadway and 77th St in Manhattan, designed by architect Emery Roth (1871–1948) in Art Nouveau style. [back]
3. 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]
