George Washington Carver's 1923 visit

When I asked the communications office if I could have a blog, it was largely because I come across items from time to time that are too good not to share with the community. When I found these two letters a few weeks ago, buried in a stack of crumbling files from the early 1920s, I knew instantly that these were special.

At first glance, the letters don’t appear that important. A speaker writes a college president to thank him for inviting him to speak on the campus, and the president writes back to thank the speaker for sharing an hour with the students. It seems like a routine exchange of cordial letters. It’s certainly how I read them as I quickly shuffled through them. But then I looked at the top of the stationery and noticed “Tuskegee Institute.” And then I noticed the address on Snyder’s reply. Professor George W. Carver. George Washington Carver? Indeed.

The 1920s are sometimes referred to by southern historians as the “nadir of American race relations.” Throughout that decade, African-Americans left the South in droves, seeking better working opportunities and an escape from racial violence. Rigid segregation of most every aspect of public life was the order of the day.

But here, we have a cordial exchange of letters between two academic colleagues. Snyder addresses Carver as “Professor Carver.” Carver thanks Snyder for “the very warm reception” that he “shall not soon forget.” Carver has clearly addressed the Wofford student body, most likely in a Chapel service in Leonard Auditorium. Snyder says that the students “felt greatly instructed by the experience of the hour which you gave them.” Carver invites Snyder, if he ever were to be in the area, to visit Tuskegee.

You’d never know, without recognizing names of persons or institutions, that the correspondence represents an exchange of letters across the color line.

We don’t really know what happened on that day in December 1923 – we don’t have the Old Gold and Black for that year, and the Journal is silent. We don’t know what Carver said to the students. No doubt being addressed by an African-American scholar was an unusual experience for Wofford professors and students alike.

But I’d like to think the experience was a positive one for all parties.

Click on the letters for larger images. 

Comments

[Wendy]

Really nice post, Phillip. That gives me hope for the future in a lot of ways.

[Laura T. McCarty]

Maybe as you keep going through those files, you'll find more about this story. Thanks for sharing it.