Charles W. Chesnutt to Walter White, 16 October 1931
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October 16, 1931
Mr. Walter White,
Secretary, N.A.A.C.P.,
69 Fifth Avenue,
New York City.
My dear Walter,
I hope you will pardon my not having answered sooner your two letters urging renewal of my annual contribution to the N.A.A.C.P.1 The first of them, dated August 27th, came to Cleveland a few days after my return from my vacation in Michigan. On the day that the follow-up letter arrived, I went home from my office sick, and have been confined at home and practically in bed until day before yesterday, when I made my first appearance at the office.
The present economic crisis has shot my personal income all to pieces.2 I had about reached the conclusion that I could retire and live on my dividends, when my dividends disappeared, and with their disappearance my stocks shrank to almost the "irreducible minimum", some for which I had paid $98.00 going as low as $5.00 a share, and some for which I had paid $50.00 a share going down to $1.25, hardly enough to pay the broker's fee for selling them. I have been holding on to them in the hope of a comeback, but so far the hope has proved a vain one. I was never so hard up in my life, and in spite of the noble work of the N.A.A.C.P., I have to confess that I cannot at the present moment contribute anything to it.
Family joins me in regards and regrets. I am living in the hope that things will pick up ere long, although the present prospects are not very reassuring.
Sincerely yours, CWC:MKCorrespondent: Walter Francis White (1893–1955) was a Black civil rights activist and writer. He began working at the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1918, at its New York City headquarters, as assistant to James Weldon Johnson, the Association's first Black Executive Secretary. He investigated lynchings and riots, sometimes passing for White, and he became Executive Secretary in 1930. He helped desegregate the armed forces after WWII, and under his leadership the NAACP established its Legal Defense Fund. He nominally remained executive secretary until his death in 1955.
1. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) began in February 1909, with a Committee on the Negro and "The Call," a statement protesting lawlessness against Black people. In 1910, the organization adopted its current name and in 1912 began publication of a monthly journal, The Crisis, which was edited by W. E. B. Du Bois from 1912 to 1944. Chesnutt's involvement with the NAACP extended over many years, and included serving on its General Committee, attending conferences, presiding at NAACP events in Cleveland, publishing four stories and two essays in The Crisis (1912, 1915, 1924, 1926, 1930, and 1931), and being awarded in 1928 the organization's highest honor, the Spingarn Medal. [back]
2. Between the initial Wall Street crash in late 1929 and the mid-1931 banking crises, most U.S. stocks lost ninety percent or more of their value, with effects that cascaded throughout the economy. Chesnutt, who had invested in the stock market and used these investments as collateral for his mortgages, was severely affected by the crash and discussed its effects in many letters between 1930 and 1932. [back]
