Kent Rasmussen in CRITICAL COMPANION TO MARK TWAIN records a meeting
between Clemens, G. W. Cable. and Douglass on Nov. 25, 1884 backstage at
their speaking performance in Washington, DC — at the same time with Pres.
Chester Arthur.

Barb

On Monday, August 10, 2020, Dave Davis <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> I'd say he certainly did his bit, according to his lights. And, I think the
> passage you cite, Clay, suggests that notion wonderfully and
> subserversively. Other evidences that he came to believe that Black lives
> matter, too, are to be found elsewhere in 'Huck Finn' also -- it is a
> central point of Jim's narrative and Huck's dawning realization of his own
> moral situation. And, of course, there's " “A True Story Repeated Word for
> Word as I Heard It ."  It's a complex record, but on the whole a decent
> one, I feel.
>
> I don't know if he ever met Frederick Douglass  (d .1895) or heard him
> speak but that is certainly possible.  He met and was photographed with
> G.W. Carver, and supported the Tuskegee Institute, as well as donating
> privately to one or more Black students who were pursuing college degrees,
> I believe. (Paine reports this.)
>
> A less prominent African-American whom he held in high regard -- John T.
> Lewis --  is discussed in this article (there are a couple of famous
> photographs of them together): Lewis was employed as a coachman for Jervis
> Langdon.
>
> https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2004/jun/18/20040618-080728-2424r/
>
> See also: http://www.twainquotes.com/Negroes.html
>
> DDD
>
>
> On Mon, Aug 10, 2020 at 9:17 AM Clay Shannon <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> > If Alive Today, Would Mark Twain support "Black Lives Matter"?
> > I believe that he doubtless would.
> > By exposing the way some white folks thought at the time (mid-1800s) and
> > place (Mississippi River valley), Mark Twain made the point in
> "Adventures
> > of Huckleberry Finn" that Black Lives Matter.
> > You might even say that is the whole theme of the book. For one example
> of
> > that, note this passage from Chapter 33 where Twain, in a tongue-in-cheek
> > way, underscores the illogical thinking of some white people of the time
> > and place:
> > “Now I can have a good look at you; and, laws-a-me, I’ve been hungry for
> > it a many and a many a time, all these long years, and it’s come at last!
> > We been expecting you a couple of days and more.  What kep’ you?—boat get
> > aground?”
> > “Yes’m—she—”
> > “Don’t say yes’m—say Aunt Sally.  Where’d she get aground?”
> > I didn’t rightly know what to say, because I didn’t know whether the boat
> > would be coming up the river or down.  But I go a good deal on instinct;
> > and my instinct said she would be coming up—from down towards Orleans.
> That
> > didn’t help me much, though; for I didn’t know the names of bars down
> that
> > way.  I see I’d got to invent a bar, or forget the name of the one we got
> > aground on—or—Now I struck an idea, and fetched it out:
> > “It warn’t the grounding—that didn’t keep us back but a little.  We
> blowed
> > out a cylinder-head.”
> > “Good gracious! anybody hurt?”
> > “No’m.  Killed a nigger.”
> > “Well, it’s lucky; because sometimes people do get hurt.  Two years ago
> > last Christmas your uncle Silas was coming up from Newrleans on the old
> > Lally Rook, and she blowed out a cylinder-head and crippled a man.  And I
> > think he died afterwards.  He was a Baptist.  Your uncle Silas knowed a
> > family in Baton Rouge that knowed his people very well.  Yes, I remember
> > now, he did die.  Mortification set in, and they had to amputate him. But
> > it didn’t save him.  Yes, it was mortification—that was it.  He turned
> blue
> > all over, and died in the hope of a glorious resurrection. They say he
> was
> > a sight to look at.
> >
> >
> > - B. Clay Shannon
> >
>