Scope and Content Note
The papers of Robert Heberton Terrell (1857-1925) span the years 1870-1954, with the bulk of the material concentrated in the period 1884-1925. The collection consists mainly of correspondence, speeches and writings, clippings, printed matter, and miscellaneous items.
Robert H. Terrell was a distinguished educator and jurist in an age when few Black people had access to academic or professional training. Recipient of degrees from Groton Academy and Harvard College, Terrell began his career in 1884 by teaching in the old M Street High School in Washington, D.C., before taking up study of law and eventually serving nearly twenty-five years as judge of the Municipal Court of the District of Columbia. As a Republican and a judicial appointee of four presidents, including Woodrow Wilson, Terrell was one among a select group of African Americans nominated for government office in the period of reaction following Reconstruction. His papers show a man of wealth and position whose rarity in the Black community made him a prominent spokesman for the Republican Party and for Black advancement in government and in education. Among the topics in his numerous speeches and writings were the Monroe Doctrine, the relationship of law to business, the development of African American education, and the history and status of Black people in America.
The correspondence in this collection is comprised primarily of letters received during Terrell’s reappointments to the bench from 1902 to 1925. Included are greetings, letters of recommendation, and missives congratulating the jurist upon each renewal of his tenure. Copies of Terrell’s own letters are usually absent from the collection, although the incoming correspondence gives indirect evidence of his thought by registering the reactions of his acquaintances. Three men whose exchanges stand out for the information they convey about Terrell and about the Black professional elite are the letters of Charles William Anderson, a collector of the Internal Revenue Service under William H. Taft; and John Roy Lynch, a former congressman and Terrell’s law partner.
Other significant correspondence includes the letters of support sent to Terrell when Senator James K. Vardaman fought to block his reappointment by President Wilson in 1914. Prior to Wilson’s election, Terrell had relied on his Republican connection to retain his office, but in this case a Democratic president acted contrary to the wishes of a member of his own party in keeping Terrell on the bench. That other African Americans were less successful in securing federal appointments, even under more favorable circumstances, is revealed by a reply President Taft gave to Terrell’s request for the placement of an additional jobholder. “I have not done all I ought to do or all I hope to do in the matter of recognition of colored men, but positions are very hard to find,” wrote Taft in explanation of his inaction. “Nobody dies and nobody resigns.”
In addition to the correspondence of Anderson, Lynch, and Taft, some of the individuals represented in this collection include Roscoe Conkling Bruce, James Sullivan Clarkson, Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Henry Cabot Lodge, Robert Mattingly, William McKinley, Charles Burleigh Purvis, Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919), Elihu Root, Emmett J. Scott, Booker T. Washington, and Woodrow Wilson.
With the exception of a few law notes, the Robert H. Terrell Papers do not include materials derived from his private law practice, from his professorship on the law faculty of Howard University (1911-1925), or from his family life. For the latter, the reader should consult the papers of his wife, Mary Church Terrell, whose collection is also in the Manuscript Division of the Library and whose papers contain all of the family correspondence.