Sterling N. Brown to Charles W. Chesnutt, 22 November 1921
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HOWARD UNIVERSITY1
SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY
Department of Correspondence Study
Washington, D. C.
J. Stanley Durkee, A.M., Ph.D., D. D.
President
Emmett J. Scott, A.M., L.L. D.
Secretary-Treasurer
D. Butler Pratt, A.M., D.D., Dean
Sterling N. Brown, A.M., D.D.
Director of Extension Work and Correspondence Study
November 22, 1921.
Mr. Charles W. Chestnut,
1105 Williamson Bldg.,
Cleveland, Ohio.
My dear Mr. Chestnut :
The enclosed copy of a letter to Dr. Garvin2 explains itself. Dr. Durkee3 speaks before the alumni association of Howard University and friends in Cleveland on December 7.4 We are anxious to get him a hearing before the Chamber of Commerce. I am writing to ask you to get in touch with the President or Secretary of the Chamber of Commerce5 and help to make such an engagement if possible.
I expect to be in Cleveland on the 4th of December , through the 10th. Hope you are all well.
Sincerely yours, Sterling N. Brown SNB/MW.
HOWARD UNIVERSITY
SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY
Department of Correspondence Study
Washington, D. C.
J. Stanley Durkee, A.M., Ph.D., D. D.
President
Emmett J. Scott, A.M., L.L. D.
Secretary-Treasurer
D. Butler Pratt, A.M., D.D., Dean
Sterling N. Brown, A.M., D.D.
Director of Extension Work and Correspondence Study
November 22, 1921.
Dr. Charles H. Garvin,
4208 Central Avenue,
Cleveland, Ohio.
Dear Dr. Garvin :
President Durkee is to be with your alumni association on December 7 and I am writing to ask whether or not it would be possible to get for him an opportunity to speak before the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce, December 8 at any hour suitable, possibly the noon hour? I remember of having made such an arrangement some years ago for President Newman,6 though on the account of health he was not able to meet the engagement.
I am writing to Secretary Havens of the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce. Can you not appoint a committee to call on Mr. Havens in the interest of such a meeting ? President Durkee has a national reputation as a speaker and in the work of Howard University has a national theme.
Please let me know at your earliest convenience.
Sincerely yours, SNB/MW.Correspondent: Sterling N. Brown (1858–1929) was a Black minister and professor of religion. He was born into slavery and served as pastor of Mt. Zion Congregational Church in Cleveland (1885–1889) before moving to Washington, D. C., where he served as a minister and taught at Howard University's School of Theology beginning in 1892. He received his D.D. from the School of Theology in 1906 and became director of its Extension Work and Correspondence Course program in 1913.
1. A private university in Washington, D. C., Howard University was founded in 1867 by Oliver Otis Howard (1930–1909), the commissioner of the Freedmen's Bureau from 1865 to 1874, as one of the first Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). Chesnutt visited Howard University on his first trip to Washington in 1879 (The Journals of Charles W. Chesnutt, ed. Richard Brodhead [Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1993], 116). His son-in-law Edward C. Williams (1871–1929) was head librarian at Howard from 1916 until his death in 1929; his son-in-law John G. Slade (1890–1976) attended Howard Medical School; and his grandson Charles Waddell Chesnutt Williams (1909–1940) earned a B.A. and law degree from Howard. [back]
2. Dr. Charles H. Garvin (1890–1968) was a Black doctor, businessman, and activist, originally from Florida, who graduated from Howard Medical School in 1915 and practiced in Cleveland from 1916 to 1968. During World War I, he was the first commissioned Black medical officer in the United States Army. He was active locally in the NAACP, the Urban League, and the Karamu House interracial arts initiative. [back]
3. James Stanley Durkee (1866–1951) was a White Congregationalist minister who served as president of Howard University from 1918 until 1926, where he was widely criticized by trustees, faculty, and students for a conservative administration and hostile climate. He resigned in March 1926 and was replaced by Mordecai Wyatt Johnson (1890–1976), Howard's first Black President (1926–1960). Durkee then served as minister at Plymouth Church in Boston (1926–1941). [back]
4. It is not clear whether J. Stanley Durkee and Sterling N. Brown came to Cleveland in December 1921, since no newspaper coverage has been located. Durkee spoke in Cincinnati on December 5, 1921, at the 20th annual conference of the Colored Men's Department of the Y.M.C.A. of North America (see "Y.M.C.A. Conference at Cincinnati Makes Historical Landmark," The Buffalo American, Tuesday, Dec. 8, 1921, p. 1), and had returned to Washington, D. C., by Sunday, December 11, to speak at a memorial service. [back]
5. The Cleveland Chamber of Commerce was founded in 1848 to represent the interests of its businessmen in city politics. Its influential executive secretary (1905–1938), Munson Aldrich Havens (1873–1942), a White man from Washington, D. C., joined the Chamber in 1898 and contributed significantly to its growth. Chesnutt was a member of the Chamber from 1912 to 1931, and wrote his 1930 article "The Negro in Cleveland" at Havens' request for the Chamber's magazine, The Clevelander. Chesnutt knew Havens personally as a writer, bibliophile, and member of the Rowfant Club. [back]
6. Stephen Morrell Newman (1845–1924) was the president of Howard University who preceded J. Stanley Durkee (1912–1918). Like Durkee, he was a White Congregationalist minister from the northeast. [back]
