If I can assist you in collecting facts from these people who knew intimately the men of whom you write, I should be glad to do so.
I feel that the best way to do this would be for you to send me a set of questionnaires which I might send to these friends with letters.
I am trying thro' the Department of Archives and History of Alabama and the Congressional Library to locate material which will illuminate the life of George Houston.
If what I have written is of interest to you, then I am glad that I have written. And can I be of assistance, I shall be glad to make further contribution if possible.
Sincerely, (Signed) HELEN JAMES CHISHOLM, MRS. FRANK P. CHISHOLM.
The following letter written primarily to correct certain errors has been productive of much good in bringing to light a number of facts which the public should know:
140 COTTAGE STREET, NEW HAVEN, CONN., February 23, 1920.
DR. CARTER G. WOODSON, 1216 You Street, Washington.
I find the latest number of your _Journal_ most interesting and permanently valuable, like those that have preceded. I think that the publication is gaining a position in its particular field which promises to make it an accepted authority on historical questions. This makes it the more essential for manifest errors to be carefully guarded against and eliminated from contributed articles.
I observe on page 5 the designation "Tillston College" of The American Missionary Association; the correct name is Tillotson College, for the institution at Austin, Texas. The footnote gives _Brawley_ as authority. I do not have this book at hand but have a suspicion that the erroneous spelling is found there also.
Another statement in the same article which seems to me erroneous in a more serious matter is found at the bottom of page 4, where it is assumed that in 1863 "only 5 per cent of the Negro population was literate." In your book on _The Education of the Negro Prior to 1861_ you have stated very solid reasons for believing 10 per cent to be about the right estimate. This accords also with the U.S. Census figures of 1870, set forth in a table of which I sent you a copy. Is it not a matter of vital significance to our American history which of these statements is to be accepted? Yesterday I saw posted on the wall of a New Haven church the statement of _5 per cent_. It used to be considered allowable to make wild statements on this subject when presenting the claims of Southern education. Indeed I have known the statement to be made in such a connection, that _none_ of the Negroes could read or write before the war. I yield to no one in my estimate of the importance of the work of Northern teachers and Northern schools in the education of the colored people. But their value is not magnified by such exaggerated and reckless over-statement. Rather is it brought under serious question and damaging suspicion.