One of those things I'd love to know --- and never will: Did Chariton's Booker T. Richmond, who went on to become an academic and athletic standout at Chariton High School, then an attorney (left), actually meet his namesake, Booker T. Washington (above), when that hugely influential gentleman visited Lucas County on the Chautauqua circuit during August of 1905.
Little Booker would not have remembered the meeting of course --- he was the youngest of Romulus and Lillie Richmond's family, born in Chariton on Oct. 4, 1904, and not yet a year old that summer. But I'm betting that the Richmonds were among the 842 people (not counting children) who paid 50 cents each (a premium price) on Tuesday afternoon, Aug. 1, to enter the Chautauqua grounds and hear the great man speak.
This was the largest crowd that gathered to hear an individual speaker during the week-long Chautauqua, but of course even one of the most influential men of the late 19th and early 20th century couldn't compete with the evening entertainment. Eight-hundred and fifty-one were present Tuesday night to view a moving picture show by the Robertson Projectoscope Company, accompanied by Miss Ethel Carrick on violin and Miss Edith Wheeler on piano.
Booker T. Washington, based at the Tuskegee Institute (now Tuskegee University) in Tuskegee, Alabama, was nearing 50 and the most influential black citizen of the United States at the time of his appearance in Chariton. His landmark, "Up From Slavery," had been published just four years earlier.
Here's how The Chariton Patriot reported on his presentation in its edition of Thursday, Aug. 3:
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"The largest afternoon audience of the Chautauqua thus far was the one which greeted the great negro, Booker T. Washington, Tuesday afternoon. Mr. Washington first spoke of the many and varied proposed solutions of the race problem voiced by impractical people. He ridiculed the idea that the great question can be solved by attempting to segregate the black man in this country or by trying to send him back to Africa. Neither of these things can be done. The negro is with us and he must be reckoned with as a legitimate element in the makeup of the citizenship of this country, therefore must he fit himself so as to do his part as a useful citizen. To thus equip himself he must be intelligently educated, and it was to this subject of industrial education that the speaker devoted most of his lecture.
"He spoke of his own efforts in the face of much difficulty to gain an education for himself. He told how he had started, in a shanty, the school from which has grown the great normal and industrial institute for negroes at Tuskegee, Alabama. That school today has over 1,400 students enrolled, under the tutorship of sixty teachers. Here are taught all the mechanical trades for men and domestic science for women, beside the regular normal school course. The principal occupation taught is agriculture in all its branches. Practical application of their learning is required of the students. The fine Carnegie library and all buildings large and small upon the property of the institute have all been built by the colored students. They carry on the farming and do all of the work upon the plantation. They are taught frugality and economy; to labor intelligently and to do their work well. Hundreds of these educated negroes go forth from this school every year. They are fast accumulating property and are adding much to the productiveness and wealth of the South.
"Mr. Washington's bearing upon the platform is that of a man thoroughly accustomed to speaking in public. He is a good talker, forceful, and at times, eloquent. His lecture is highly spoken of by all who had the good fortune to hear him."
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The Chariton Leader also reported upon Mr. Washington's lecture, but in much shorter form and accompanied by the vaguely racist snark that was characteristic of its editor, Henry Gittinger.
Gittinger complained, for example, that the price of admission to hear Washington speak was 50 cents while the admission cost for other speakers was 25 cents. And he felt obligated to write that Washington "has one advantage ... over the thousands of white men in this country in one respect. Competition is not so strong in his case. There is but one Booker Washington, which fact places him far above the commonplace even though his abilities were less. To say that he is more gifted than thousands of Caucasians would be folly unpardonable ...."
Old Henry did add, however, a related news item that I found interesting under the heading, "Buxton-Chariton" ---
"Tuesday was the colored man's day in Chariton, After the address by Booker T. Washington, a large concourse of people repaired to the ball park to witness the game between the Buxton Wonders, a colored aggregation, and the Chariton Infants. To put in mildly, it was a good game from start to finish, with very few errors. At the bat the Wonders were far superior to the Infants, otherwise they were pretty evenly matched. The number of hits on each side were about equal, but our boys knocked too many little pop up flies, which always fell into a pair of colored hands. The Wonders made nine scores, while the Infants had to content themselves with two."
Good for The Wonders!
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