W. E. B. Du Bois to Charles W. Chesnutt, 10 April 1931
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EDITORIAL ROOMS OF
THE CRISIS
69 FIFTH AVENUE
NEW YORK. N.Y.
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF COLORED PEOPLE1
W. E. BURGHARDT DU BOIS
April 10, 1931.
Mr. Charles W. Chesnutt,
9719 Lamont Avenue,
Cleveland, Ohio.
My dear Mr. Chesnutt:
I have read your article in THE COLOPHON2 and I am much pleased with it. I want to republish it in THE CRISIS and the Editor has written me as follows:
"The editors of The Colophon have no objection to your using the Chesnutt article, either in part or in whole, providing, of course, that you have Mr. Chesnutt's consent and protect the Colophon's copyright."3
I trust I may have your consent. I hope this will find you in good health.
Very sincerely yours, W.E.B. Du Bois WEBD/DWCorrespondent: William Edward Burghardt Du Bois (1868–1963) was a sociologist, historian, and world-renowned civil rights activist. After completing coursework at the University of Berlin and Harvard University, Du Bois became the first African American to earn a doctorate from Harvard in 1895. He was a professor of history, sociology, and economics at Atlanta University (1897–1910 and again in the 1930s). He was a prominent leader of the Niagara Movement and helped found the NAACP in 1909. As the editor of the NAACP's journal, The Crisis, from 1910 to 1931, Du Bois published four of Chesnutt's short stories as well as two of his essays. See "The Doll" (April 1912), "Mr. Taylor's Funeral" (April/May 1915), "The Marked Tree" (Dec 1924/Jan 1925), and "Concerning Father" (May 1930); and "Women's Rights" (1915) and "The Negro in Art" (November 1926).
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. The essay, titled "Post Bellum, Pre-Harlem," appeared in Colophon, Part 5, in February 1931. In preparation, according to his daughter, Chesnutt "exhumed his scrap books [and] reread old letters" (see Helen M. Chesnutt, Charles Waddell Chesnutt: Pioneer of the Color Line [Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1952], 311. It was reprinted in the Crisis Vol.40 (June 1931) and later by Elmer Adler in his collection Breaking into Print (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1937). [back]
3. The (lost) enclosed folder may have concerned Johnson's new poetry collection, mentioned later in the letter, or to her political activism; it is not clear why she asked for the addresses of teachers specifically. [back]
