Charles W. Chesnutt to Abraham Edward Bernsteen, 8 March 1923
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Office Copy
March 8, 1923.
A. E. Bernsteen, Esq.,
U. S. District Attorney,
102 Engineers Building,
City.
Dear Sir:
Permit me to congratulate you on your appointment to the important and distinguished office of U. S. District Attorney, which you are so well qualified to hold.
Might I suggest that if you would give favorable consideration to the application of Mr. Chester K. Gillespie for the position of Assistant U. S. District Attorney, under you, such an appointment would give pleasure to a great many citizens and voters and Republicans in the district?1 You are doubtless well informed as to Mr. Gillespie's experience and qualifications, and his friends would appreciate very highly any favorable action that you may see fit to take in his behalf.2
Sincerely yours, Chas. W. Chesnutt CWC/FLCorrespondent: Abraham Edward Bernsteen (1876–1957) was a White lawyer who had graduated from Western Reserve University's law school in Cleveland in 1900 and was in private practice with various partners. He was a lifelong Republican and served as U.S. District Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio from 1923 to 1929. In January 1929, he resigned and returned to private practice.
1. Chester K. Gillespie (1897–1985) was a Black lawyer and activist from Ohio who got his law degree at Baldwin-Wallace College Law School in Berea, Ohio, and became assistant law director for the city of Cleveland in 1921. He brought many (mostly unsuccessful) anti-discrimination lawsuits against businesses, and later served as a Republican in the Ohio General Assembly (1933—34, 1939—40, and 1943—44) and as the president of the Cleveland branch of the NAACP (1936—37). [back]
2. Gillespie asked Chesnutt in his letter of March 3, 1923 for this nomination letter for assistant U.S. District Attorney. But the newly appointed Bernsteen appointed Irene Nungesser (1890—1970), a White lawyer from his practice, and one of the first women to serve in this position. Like Bernsteen himself, she resigned from her position in 1929 (March). Nungesser became Bernsteen's wife in 1933. [back]
