Lafayette M. Hershaw (May 10, 1863 – September 2, 1945) was an American journalist, lawyer, and a clerk and law examiner for the United States General Land Office of the United States Department of the Interior. He was a key intellectual figure among African Americans in Atlanta in the 1880s and in Washington, D.C., from 1890 until his death. He was a leader of the intellectual social groups in the capital such as Bethel Literary and Historical Society and the Pen and Pencil Club. He was a strong supporter of W. E. B. Du Bois and was one of the thirteen organizers of the Niagara Movement, the forerunner to the NAACP. He was an officer of the D.C. Branch of the NAACP from its inception until 1928. He was also a founder of the Robert H. Terrell Law School and served as the school's president.
Life Lafayette McKeene Hershaw was born on May 10, 1863, in Clay County, North Carolina, to Abraham Hershaw and Anne McKeene. He had African, Native American, and French blood and learned to speak and read French,"Lafayette McKeene Hershaw". The Journal of Negro History. Vol. 30, No. 4 (October 1945), pp. 462–464. Spanish, and German."At the National Capital". Freeman (Indianapolis, Indiana). January 8, 1910. Volume XXIII, Issue 2, p. 1. Among his first job was working for moonshiners in the mountain wilderness of the region. Hershaw began his studies at Atlanta University in 1879 and received a Bachelor of Arts from the school in 1886. He also studied law at Howard University and received a bachelor of laws from that school in 1892. Hershaw was described as sad-eyed and having a fuzzy mustache.Lewis, David Levering, W. E. B. Du Bois, 1868–1919. MacMillan, December 15, 1994.
On July 11, 1888, he married Charlotte Monroe.Jones, Angela. African American Civil Rights: Early Activism and the Niagara Movement: Early Activism and the Niagara Movement. ABC-CLIO, August 15, 2011. He had three daughters, Rosa Cecile (who married James T. W. Granady, Howard alum and Harlem, New York doctor), Alice May, and Fay M. Charlotte died on October 26, 1930."In Memorium". Evening Star (Washington, D.C.). October 26, 1938, p. 12.
Hershaw died September 2, 1945, in the Freedmen's Hospital in Washington D.C. His funeral was at the Plymouth Congregational Church and he was buried in Lincoln Memorial Cemetery."L. M. Hershaw, 82, Law Examiner and Educator Dies". Evening Star (Washington, D.C.). September 4, 1945, p. 12.
Atlanta public schools
Hershaw's career in public service began in Atlanta where he worked as a teacher and principal of the Gate City School in the Atlanta Public School District serving from 1886 to 1889. Atlanta University was, at that time, employing white and black teachers and included students of both races (many of the white students were children of white faculty). In 1889, Georgia Legislator W. C. Glenn introduced what would be passed as the Glenn Bill to mandate that all educational facilities be segregated by race, but to also create normal schools for African Americans. While this bill was supported by some black leaders, including AME bishop Henry McNeal Turner, Hershaw was very vocal against it."A Bill to Establish Colored Normal Schools in Georgia Rouses Negro Wrath". July 21, 1889. Charleston News and Courier (Charleston, South Carolina), p. 5.
In July 1889, Hershaw told an audience of blacks that education was of higher quality in the North than in the South, spoke highly of the influence of northern ideas on the Chautaqua School in Lithia Springs, Georgia, and of the positive effect of Northern capital and engineering in the South. This speech offended Colonel W. S. Thompson and Judge William Roberson Hammond of the Board of Education in the City of Atlanta, and the pair had Hershaw fired. Thompson implied that he would like to exile or execute Hershaw, but his position forbade such an action, and that he would like Hershaw to leave Atlanta."Out of a Job". Daily Inter Ocean (Chicago, Illinois). August 1, 1889. Volume XVIII, Issue 130, p. 4.
Washington, D.C., and the Department of the Interior
In 1890 he came to Washington, D.C., and began working for the United States Civil Service as a land examiner in the Department of the Interior, where he worked for forty-two years. It was suggested Hershaw's appointment was in part a result of a pronouncement by Theodore Roosevelt while he was a Civil Service Commissioner that color could not be a barrier to appointment."Information About 'Teddy' Roosevelt". The Colored American, Washington, D.C., June 8, 1901, volume 9, issue 10, p. 8. However, during Roosevelt's presidency, he was criticized by the paper, "The Colored American", for doing editorial work for anti-Roosevelt papers such as the Washington Bee."Literary Curiosities". The Colored American, Washington, D.C., February 13, 1904. Volume X, Issue 31, p. 7. He responded that he did support the president and the Republican Party, and believed Roosevelt stood for justice, civil equality, and fair play."Not Against the Administration". The Colored American. February 20, 1904. Volume X, Issue 32, p. 8. While not campaigning for Roosevelt, he did travel the country with fellow federal employee Judson Whitlocke Lyons to speak at republican events in October 1904."Lyons and Hershaw. They Open Campaign In Michigan A Large Crowd President". Washington Bee (Washington, D.C.). October 1, 1904. Volume 24, Issue 17, p. 1.
In 1907, Hershaw and others were rallying opposition to Booker T. Washington's Tuskegee Institute and T. Roosevelt in the black press. Washington sent his assistant, New York Customs Agent Charles W. Anderson to suggest action against the radicals to Roosevelt. Anderson opposed the idea of Niagara movement members holding federal jobs and suggested to the president that Hershaw was responsible for the problems in the press and that Hershaw should be demoted.Jacqueline M. Moore, Leading the Race: The Transformation of the Black Elite in the Nation's Capital, 1880–1920 University of Virginia Press, 1999, p. 154, Roosevelt sent Anderson to the Secretary of the Interior Hitchcock, and requested the secretary reduce Hershaw's rank or transfer him to a disagreeable job.Jacqueline M. Moore, Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. Du Bois, and the Struggle for Racial Uplift. Rowman & Littlefield, January 1, 2003, p. 81. Anderson's success in this case was repeated against Freeman H. M. Murray when Murray stoked the ire of Washington.Moore 1999, p 154.
In spite of the intrigue, Hershaw had a good relationship with many politicians in Washington, even white politicians with whose policies he disagreed. From 1893 to 1896, Hershaw served under Secretary of the Interior M. Hoke Smith, and the pair continued a relationship after Smith's term ended. Hershaw knew and became friends with Woodrow Wilson when Wilson was a struggling lawyer in Atlanta. Wilson opposed segregation of Hershaw from white members of the Civil Service during the implementation of that policy in 1913. In 1925, Hershaw was promoted to Assistant Law Examiner, the highest position held up to that time by a black man in the Land Office."Negro Promoted". Broad Ax (Chicago). September 26, 1925. p. 2.
Early support for Booker T. Washington
In 1895, Booker T. Washington presented a speech that came to be known as the Atlanta Exposition Speech or the Atlanta Compromise Speech. This outlined Washington's conservative approach and came to represent a compromise in the South of black education and due process in exchange for white political rule. In Washington, D.C., intellectual groups held a number of meetings where the speech was discussed and debated. At meetings of the Bethel Literary and Historical Society, the Shiloh Baptist Lyceum, and elsewhere, Hershaw supported Washington. While some claimed Washington spoke of blacks having a low menial position in the history of the nation, Hershaw claimed that the speech was "logical, instructive, and sensible" and focused on the portion of the speech which "advised harmony and friendly relations between the races"."Discussed Mr. Washington's Speech". November 5, 1895. Evening Star (Washington, D.C.), p. 13. Other government workers: A. E. Clark (society president and clerk at the Pension Office), Jesse Lawson (also a clerk at the Pension Office and editor of The Colored American, Washington, D.C., and John Wesley Cromwell also endorsed the speech while non-government workers condemned it; leading to criticism of supporters of Washington for apparent willingness to support compromise so that they do not put their jobs at risk."Todyism". November 2, 1895. Washington Bee (Washington, D.C.). Volume XIV, Issue 19, p. 4.
In 1898, Kelly Miller gave the address to the graduating class of Howard University. In that address, Miller spoke of the advancement of blacks. In an editorial reply, Charles Remond Douglass saw the argument as similar to those of Booker T. Washington that black people must show through their achievements that they deserve their position in civilization. This offended the son of the famous escaped slave and radical black rights activist Frederick Douglass."Miller's Castle Shelled. A Specious Argument Demolished by the Rapid Fire Guns of Major Charles R. Douglass". The Colored American, Washington, D.C., July 2, 1898. Volume 6, Issue 14, p. 1. In a series of articles in The Colored American, a Washington, D.C., black weekly, Hershaw defended Miller that the contribution of African Americans is indeed substantial and Miller expresses that fact well, but that there is much room for improvement."Hershaw in Rebuttal. Exceptions Taken to Maj. Douglass' Strictures upon the Address of Prof. Kelly Miller". The Colored American, Washington, D.C., July 9, 1898. After a few more editorials, Douglass recognized that the remainder of Miller's address clarified the issue and the real problem lay in the excerpt by the newspaper, The Washington Post, which only included the offensive paragraph that minimized the value of blacks.Douglass did take offense to Hershaw's tone, but the dispute seemed to have died out afterwards, "Douglass in Judgment. Pays His Respects to Prof. Hershaw and Says the Vital Issue Has Been Evaded". The Colored American, Washington, D.C. July 30, 1898. Volume 6, Issue 18, p. 5.
Increased radicalization Near the end of the 1890s, he began to focus his interest on urban blacks. In 1897 he presented a study of excess mortality of urban blacks to various audiences."The Microcosm of the Negro". January 22, 1897. Evening Star (Washington, D.C.), p. 10. Hershaw returned to Atlanta in 1898 to present his work at the Third Atlanta Conference, an important conference on the subject of civil rights and black life in America and run by W. E. B. DuBois. This was among the earliest intellectual interactions between Hershaw and the civil rights giant. And in 1899, he concluded that black rights organizations were spreading themselves too thin and they should focus more on one single thing."The Congressional Lyceum. an Interesting Address by Mr. Hershaw". Washington Bee (Washington, D.C.). May 6, 1899. Volume XVII. Issue 48, p. 8.
The Bethel Literary and Historical Society