Charles W. Chesnutt to Frank B. Willis, 6 May 1922
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May 6, 1922.
Hon. Frank B. Willis,
United States Senate,
Washington, D. C.
My dear Senator Willis:
The colored citizens of Ohio supported you, unanimously I imagine, in your election to the Senate, and I as one of them, and reflecting, I believe, the unanimous opinion of the thinking element of that group of our population, am intensely interested in the present situation in Haiti and Santo Domingo.1 I would respectfully suggest that it would greatly please me and all those who feel as I do, if you would support the conclusions set out at the end of the enclosed report on the military occupation of Haiti,2 and specifically the three resolutions introduced into the Senate by Senator King and now pending before the Foreign Relations Committee,3 numbers 219, 233 and 256, calling for the withdrawal of our forces from Haiti and Santo Domingo, for opposition to any loan to Haiti at the present time (the present proposed loan would subject Haitian finances and indirectly the Haitian Government to complete control by the United States for the next thirty or forty years), and finally, provide the practical means for the withdrawal of the American forces, the restitution of a genuine native government in Haiti and the transfer of governmental functions as now exercised by Americans to a re-constituted Haitian Government.4
It is obvious from reading the list of lawyers who signed the enclosed report, that a great many other men besides colored people take the same view of this matter.5 I can assure you that so far as I and any others whom I can influence are concerned, any action that you may take toward complying with this request will not be forgotten.
Sincerely yours, CWC/FLCorrespondent: Frank Bartlett Willis (1871–1928) was a White Republican politician from Ohio. Trained as a lawyer, he served in the Ohio House (1900–1904) before becoming a U.S. Congressman (1911–1915) and then governor of Ohio (1915–1917). From 1921 to 1928 he represented Ohio in the U.S. Senate, where he served alongside his Democratic rival, Atlee Pomerene, for the first two years.
1. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) joined with many Black activists in opposing the U.S. occupation of Haiti (1915–1934), publicized failings of U.S. policy, and published Haitian news, poetry, and books about Haiti in its monthly magazine, The Crisis. NAACP Executive Secretary James Weldon Johnson traveled to Haiti in 1920 to investigate conditions, and White’s trip in 1931 was a mix of work and vacation. Chesnutt, a founding member of the NAACP, shared the concerns about the occupation of Haiti. [back]
2. The sixteen-page report, entitled "The Seizure of Haiti by the United States: A Report on the Military Occupation of the Republic of Haiti and the History of the Treaty Forced Upon Her," was published by the Foreign Policy Association (New York) and distributed by the National Popular Government League (Washington, D.C.) with twenty-four signatures. It called for the U.S. to abrogate the treaty that was the basis of the occupation, for election of a new government in Haiti, and for new treaty negotiations between "free and independent sovereign states" (p. 15). [back]
3. Senate Resolution 256, introduced by Democratic Senator William H. King (Utah, 1863–1949) on March 10, 1922, called for the U.S. to withdraw from Haiti and to oversee democratic elections. (See "Would Evacuate Haiti," New York Times, March 11, 1922, 8.) [back]
4. The language from "support . . ." to the end of the paragraph closely follows the passage Chesnutt marked in Ernest Angell's letter of April 26, 1922. [back]
5. As eventually published, the brief appeared with the signatures of twenty-four well-known laywers and law professors, but did not include Chesnutt's. [back]
