Alfred Moore Waddell

And then as now, you have to have a recommendation from a senator or a congressman or something like that from your constituency.

And Robert Harris arranges to have the letter the letter of recommendation from Waddell, Alfred Waddell, who is an important political figure at the time.

And I found this letter at the Schomburg Library, and that's how he's able to take the exam.

and he takes the exam, and though he does very well on the exam, one of the examiners writes to Robert Harris and says, even though Charles Chestnut did the best on the exam, we're recommending that he not be given a spot in this school, but instead should become a school teacher so that he can better serve his people, is the gist of it, is the gist of this letter.

Yeah, I kind of explained it that way.

But then I guess, like, you can kind of also see that complexity in the Mare of Tradition with the character of Major Carteret.

who is kind of the white supremacist who I argue Chestnut is kind of basing, like that character is based on Alfred Waddell or people like him.

It's not a one-to-one relation.