Walter White to Charles Chesnutt, 3 March 1932
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NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THEADVANCEMENT OF COLORED PEOPLE 69 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK TELEPHONE: ALGONQUIN 4-6548 Official Organ: The Crisis1 March 3, 1932 A PLEA TO THE LOYAL Dear Friend of the N.A.A.C.P.:2
A major crisis in the history of the Negro impels me to write you with the hope that you will read this plea carefully and then act promptly upon the problem presented.
I do not need to tell you how the present unemployment situation is affecting the Negro.3 In addition to a higher percentage of unemployment among colored people a determined wave of bigotry is being directed against the Negro and other minority groups. This threatens all the progress which has been won against such intolerance during the last two decades. As suffering generally becomes more widespread and acute there is a determined effort to take out a good deal of this misery upon less advantaged groups like the Negro. The growing tenseness is most clearly evident in the avalanche of appeals which are pouring in upon us here at the National Office of the N.A.A.C.P., and upon our branches throughout the country.
Despite the financial situation the income of the Association during 1931 not only kept pace with that of 1930 but even exceeded it by some $10,000. At the same time, however, appeals to us for aid and urgent work so increased our expenditures that we today have a deficit in our general fund of more than $9,000.
You will ask how that money was expended. May I tell you of a few sample cases. The N.A.A.C.P. is today defending two Negro boys in Arkansas, twice sentenced to die for a murder which they did not commit and who have been in death cells since 1928...4 Within the past week we won in the Missouri Supreme Court reversal of the death sentence of two other Negro boys whom we know, through investigation by the N.A.A.C.P., to be innocent of the murder with which they are charged.....5 In Alabama we have just sent our cheque for $500 to help finance appeal to the Supreme Court for Willie Peterson, innocent Negro charged with a double murder....6 In Mississippi we are fighting against overwhelming odds to save the lives of two other Negroes, one charged with murder and the other with rape, investigation having shown those men to be innocent....7 In North Carolina we are defending
a Negro who was sentenced to die on false testimony and who refused to confess to the crime even though he was put to torture....8 On March 14th we are to reargue in the United States Supreme Court a disfranchisement case from Texas which will profoundly affect the right to vote of every Negro in the South.9
These are a few of the cases which we are fighting. Now may I tell you of a few appeals to us in cases in which we will almost surely have to refuse aid unless you help us:
In Mississippi two Negro firemen and brakemen have been killed and five others shot in order that whites may have their jobs....10 In Florida, Georgia, Illinois, and other states, there is a determined drive through mob-violence and intimidation of employers to oust Negroes from the jobs they now hold in order that they may be given to white unemployed... For the sum of $2250 we could make an investigation and get action in notorious discrimination in the matter of jobs on a great government project.
During the past year more than 3500 appeals came to the National office and branches of the Association. Many of these did not come within the scope of the Association's activities. But, on the other hand, the more than doubling of our work during the past year demonstrates the tenseness of the situation which must be met unless grave catastrophies are to overwhelm us. Accompanying these legal cases is the work of legislation and the necessity, more urgent now than ever before, of influencing public opinion towards greater justice and humaneness.
Our chief handicap is severely limited funds. We can do little in this struggle for the Negro's rights unless you help us. You have shown your interest many times in the past; we appeal to you to come to our rescue in this dire emergency and PROMPTLY help us in this crisis.
How? You can do so very easily. You don't need even to write a letter or a cheque. Just pin a $1, $2, $5, or $10 bill, or your cheque for a larger sum, to this letter and put it in the mails today in the enclosed self-addressed envelope. All you need to do is to reach down in your pocket, take out as large a bill as you can possibly spare, check below the amount you send, write your name and address and mail it today.
You can make no better investment than by helping today to pay the bills necessary to stop this wave of intimidation of and injustice toward the Negro.
Ever sincerely, Walter White Secretary WW:CTFDear N.A.A.C.P.:—
Here is my bit towards the fight.
$1.00 ___ $2.00 ___ $5.00___ $10.00___ $___ ___ (Name) __________ (Address) __________Correspondent: 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. For readability, the remainder of the letterhead is not transcribed at the top of the letter but is included in this footnote as unformatted text. The letterhead can be seen in its entirety in the accompanying image of the letter. The text of the remainder of the letterhead is as follows: "NATIONAL OFFICERS PRESIDENT J. E. SPINGARN VICE PRESIDENTS HON. ARTHUR CAPPER BISHOP JOHN A. GREGG REV. JOHN HAYNES HOLMES JAMES WELDON JOHNSON ARTHUR B. SPINGARN OSWALD GARRISON VILLARD ACTING TREASURER MARY WHITE OVINGTON EXECUTIVE OFFICERS WALTER WHITE SECRETARY ROY WILKINS ASSISTANT SECRETARY DR. W. E. B. DUBOIS EDITOR OF THE CRISIS ROBERT W. BAGNALL DIRECTOR OF BRANCHES WILLIAM PICKENS FIELD SECRETARY DAISY E. LAMPKIN REGIONAL FIELD SECRETARY HERBERT J. SELIGMANN DIRECTOR OF PUBLICITY". [back]
2. 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]
3. By 1932 African American unemployment had climbed to almost 50 percent. The NAACP's annual conference of 1932 passed resolutions calling for a new economic program for Black America that would involve the redistribution of wealth, higher taxes for the rich, and social security programs for workers regardless of race. [back]
4. In 1928, the Arkansas State Supreme Court overturned the murder convictions of two young Black men, Robert Bell and Grady Swain, finding that testimony had been coerced (Swain had been whipped in jail) and that there was insufficient evidence of murder. On retrial, both received legal assistance from local attorneys and the NAACP. They accepted plea deals with lighter sentences and promises of early realease through parole. It was not until 1934, six years later, that they were granted clemency and released from prison. [back]
5. In a 1930 murder trial in Missouri, NAACP Investigator Helen Boardman proved that evidence had been falsified and that threats of lynching had been used during interrogation of the three Black men accused of the crime (Eual Richardson, Emmett Gallie, and "Buster" Shockley, who was only 13). An appeal to the Supreme Court of Missouri resulted in a second trial, and two of the men were sentenced to life in prison. (See "Gallie and Richardson Given Life Sentence," Clinton Eye 47, no. 41 [7 July 1932]: 1.) [back]
6. In 1931, in Birmingham, Alabama, Willie Peterson, a former miner and veteran, was charged and convicted of murder and sentenced to death, although he did not mach the sole witness's description. The International Labor Defense sought to take control of the case, but the NAACP represented Peterson before the Alabama Supreme Court in 1932 and the U.S. Supreme Court in 1934. Neither overturned the conviction and sentence, although the Alabama governor commuted the sentence to life in prison. Peterson died in prison in 1940. (See Melanie Morrison, Murder on Shades Mountain: The Legal Lynching of Willie Peterson and the Struggle for Justice in Jim Crow Birmingham [Durham: Duke University Press, 2018].) [back]
7. In 1931, in Mississippi, NAACP Attorney S. D. Redmond led investigations into unrelated cases: against Tom Carraway for rape of a White woman and against Ervin Pruitt for murder of his mixed-race infant. In the latter case, two Mississippi State Supreme Court justices argued against conviction; the other was more difficult and the local NAACP chapter was reluctant to fund the defense. But fearing the negative publicity of not taking the case, the national office of the NAACP stepped in, and Walter White successfully persuaded the Commission on Interracial Cooperation to assist. In both cases, death penalties were commuted to life in prison. (See NAACP, "1931 Folder," Monthly reports, including lynching, forced labor, and discrimination, Papers of the NAACP, Part 01: Meetings of the Board of Directors, Records of Annual Conferences, Major Speeches, and Special Reports, Library of Congress.) [back]
8. In 1930, in Wilmington, NC three Black men (Chevis Herring, Ernest Herring, and Oscar Murphy) were found guilty of murder. One was executed almost immediately; one was granted a retrial by the North Carolina Supreme Court, where he was again convicted and sentenced to death. With his last words he sought to clear the third (his brother) of the crime. The NAACP interceded on the third man's behalf, arguing that the evidence was circumstantial, that the testimony of fellow inmates had been forced, and that mental illness invalidated the conviction. The North Carolina Governor Max Gardner commuted the sentence to life in prison. (See "Postmaster Is Ambushed and Fatally Wounded," Charlotte Observer [30 June 1930]: 1, 9; "Hold Three in Brutual Slaying," Charlotte News [30 June 1930]: 1, 9, 3; "Condemned Man to Get Second Hearing," News and Observer [4 May 1931]: 10; "Governor Grants Herring Reprieve," Durham Herald-Sun [15 January 1932]: 1, 10; NAACP, "January–March 1932," Robert Bagnall correspondence, including chapter organization and travel, Papers of the NAACP, Part 01: Meetings of the Board of Directors, Records of Annual Conferences, Major Speeches, and Special Reports, Library of Congress; "Ernest Herring Is Saved from Chair," Statesville Record and Landmark [1 April 1932]: 2.) [back]
9. In 1927 (Nixon v. Herdon), the Supreme Court ruled against a Texas statute that barred Black citizens from participation in Democratic party primary elections. The state immediately passed a slightly different statute, which the NAACP challenged, and which the U.S. Supreme Court also (in Nixon v. Condon, 1932) struck down. Three years later, when a third statute was appealed (Grovey v. Townshend, 1935), the Supreme Court concluded that the state Democratic Party was a private body and thus had the power to determine who was eligible for membership and eligible to vote in the party's primaries. It was not until 1944 that this decision was reversed. [back]
10. Competition for jobs during the Great Depression fueled racial violence, including against railway employees. In 1931 and 1932 three brakemen and four firemen were wounded or killed (Jack Taylor and Cleve Sims wounded at Durant, Mississippi; Fred Harman wounded at Aberdeen Junction, Mississippi; Frank Kincaid killed and Gus Emery wounded at Canton, Mississippi; Ed Cold killed at Water Valley, Mississippi; and Sam Barnes wounded at McComb, Mississippi). The NAACP began discussing this matter with the Illinois Central Railroad company in 1931. L. R. Moloy of Jackson, Tennessee, who first brought the matter to the attention of the NAACP national office, was later murdered for this effort. (See Horace R. Cayton and George S. Mitchell, "Appendix B: Murders of Negro Firemen," in Black Workers and the New Unions [Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1939]: 439–445; NAACP, "1931 Folder," Monthly reports, including lynching, forced labor, and discrimination, Papers of the NAACP, Part 01: Meetings of the Board of Directors, Records of Annual Conferences, Major Speeches, and Special Reports, Library of Congress.) [back]
