Most of the negroes who gained any prominence or influence in the years just after the Civil War entered politics. Bruce and Revels had been United States Senators; Elliott and Smalls and a dozen others had been Congressmen; Pinchback, Lynch, Langston, Gibbs, and Greener had been sent for diplomatic service to foreign countries, and others had held high State offices; and a multitude of negroes had been county and city officials of various kinds.
Everybody expected Washington to accept some kind of political position, but he steadfastly refused. Time after time, men of his own race and white men urged him to run for office, or accept an appointment by the President to high office. This he absolutely refused to do. He said that his service, whatever it was worth, would be given, not in politics but in education. He believed that entirely too much emphasis had been placed on holding office by the negro, just after the war. He was more concerned about whether or not his people could have the opportunity to earn an honest living than he was about getting some political job.
He was often misunderstood about his ideas on holding office and the whole question of the part the negro should take in politics; for he was convinced that there were other things far more important at that time to the negro than the matter of voting.
There was one phase of politics, however, that Washington did keep in close touch with. This can be best explained by giving some of his correspondence.
“Theodore Roosevelt, immediately after taking the oath of office as President of the United States, in Buffalo, after the death of President McKinley, wrote Mr. Washington the following note:
Buffalo, N. Y.
September 14, 1901.
Dear Mr. Washington:
I write you at once to say that to my deep regret my visit South must now be given up.
When are you coming North? I must see you as soon as possible. I want to talk over the question of possible appointments in the South exactly on the lines of our last conversation together.