Emmett J. Scott to Charles W. Chesnutt, 27 November 1907
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November 27, 1907.
Mr. Charles W. Chestnu[],
1105 Williamson Bldg.,
Cleveland, Ohio.
Dear Mr. Chestnu[]:
Your favor of November 22 comes to Dr. Washington in his absence from the Institution.1 I shall be very glad to put it before him at the first favorable opportunity.2
With kindest regards always, I am,
Faithfully yours, Emmett J Scott Secretary. S.Correspondent: Emmett Jay Scott (1873–1957), a Black journalist from Texas, became Booker T. Washington's personal secretary in 1897 and was his influential advisor until Washington's death in 1913. He served at the Tuskegee Institute until 1917, and later at Howard University (1919–1939). During World War I, he was Special Assistant for Negro Affairs under Secretary of War Newton D. Baker (1871–1937). His notes on Chesnutt's letters often steered Washington's attention to specific letters; his direct correspondence with Chesnutt spanned over three decades.
1. 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]
2. Chesnutt's letter to Booker T. Washington from November 22, 1907, addressed differences between the two men on disfranchisement and was answered by Washington, while in Boston, MA, on December 6, 1907, after Washington had also heard from fellow Committee of Twelve member Hugh Browne (1851–1923) about Chesnutt's similar criticism in a letter to Browne. [back]
