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Joseph O. Thompson. Typed Letter Signed as Collector, Internal Revenue Service, District of Alabama. Birmingham, April 6, 1904. 1pg. on IRS stationery. To Booker T. Washington, New York City.  With pencil note in upper margin, “Capt. Scott”

‘I will take pleasure in seeing Capt. Scott at my first opportunity and I am sure that when we do meet that all differences will be settled. I shall see Mr. Alexander the latter part of this week along the lines you suggest. I have been down to Tuskegee for two or three days this week and find everything moving along nicely down there...I hope I will be able to see you while there.”

As the most prominent African-American in the United States at the turn of the century, lauded by the White Establishment for his moderate sel-help philosophy, Tuskegee President Washington had enormous political influence, especially in Teddy Roosevelt’s White House. The few Black men who held significant political patronage appointments after Frederick Douglass owed their positions to Washington, especially in Alabama, where Thompson was a leading official of the I.R.S. as well as the virtual Black political “boss” of the state, his only rival being  wealthy Montgomery businessman and Army veteran, Charles Scott. Charles Alexander was the prominent Black newspaper editor of  Boston Coloured Citizen.