Typed letter signed “Booker T. Washington” as Principal of Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute, dated May 18, 1906, on official Tuskegee letterhead (8.5" x 11"). Addressed to George C. Wilson in Kalamazoo, Michigan, Washington acknowledges an invitation to visit but notes that his schedule is too uncertain to make a promise so far in advance, suggesting he might confirm closer to September.
The letter bears the printed institutional masthead listing Booker T. Washington as Principal and Warren Logan as Treasurer, along with members of the Committee on Investment of Endowment Fund, including George Foster Peabody and Paul M. Warburg. Boldly signed at the close in Washington’s hand.
An excellent example of Washington’s correspondence as the foremost African American educator and leader of his era, written during his tenure at Tuskegee.
Toning, expected folds, small edge tears. Otherwise, fine condition.
Booker T. Washington was an American educator, author, orator, and adviser to multiple presidents of the United States. Between 1890 and 1915, Washington was the dominant leader in the African American community and of the contemporary black elite. Washington was from the last generation of black American leaders born into slavery and became the leading voice of the former slaves and their descendants. They were newly oppressed in the South by disenfranchisement and the Jim Crow discriminatory laws enacted in the post-Reconstruction Southern states in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
With One Of A Kind Collectibles COA.