Wendell P. Dabney to Charles W. Chesnutt, 12 May 1932
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PHONE MAIN 5168
DABNEY PUBLISHING CO.
AND OFFICE OF
THE UNION1
412 MCALLISTER STREET
CINCINNATI, OHIO
May 12, 1932.
Mr. Charles W. Chesnutt,
Cleveland, Ohio.
My dear Sir:
I am glad to know that you received the candy and that the family ate it. Such was my intention, or motive, when it was sent. I was fearful of sending too much to one daughter because that would have shown a favoritism and did not dare to send to your wife because I knew that you were still young enough to participate in a duael. Therefore, I played safe and killed two birds, maybe three, with one stone, so to speak.
I realize the value of your remarks concerning the Bishops.2 Since they are so bad, we have been unfair in expecting the pastors to be good. Fortunately, I severed my apprenticeship into church during the first twenty years of my existeance. Should I live to be one hundred, which God forbid, I will, in my second childhood, begin to attend church again.
I shall go to Chicago soon and see if Charles3 has kept the vows he made to me.
With kindest regards to all, I am, Yours Hastily, Dabney W.P. WPD:S" afterwards read—thank God. This stenographer of mine is in love.
Correspondent: Wendell Phillips Dabney (1865–1952) was a Black activist, musician and journalist. Originally from Richmond, Virginia, he moved to Ohio in 1883 to study at Oberlin, and then to Cincinnati in 1894. He worked for the city of Cincinnati from 1895 until 1923 and was the founder, editor, and publisher of the Black weekly paper The Union (1907–1952). Chesnutt and Dabney knew of each other in the 1920s, but only their 1930s correspondence survives.
1. The Union was a Cincinnati-based Black weekly newspaper founded in 1907 by Wendell Phillips Dabney (1865–1952), who edited it until his death. Initially affiliated with the Republican Party, it identified as Independent after 1925. [back]
2. Three bishops were temporarily suspended at the A.M.E. Quadrennial Conference in Cleveland, Ohio, in May 1932, all charged with misappropriation of church funds: William Tecumseh Vernon (1871–1944), William Decker Johnson (1869–1936), and Joshua Henry Jones (1856–1932). A fourth, who has not been identified, was involved in a sexual scandal earlier that year. Three new A.M.E. bishops were sworn in during the conference: Noah Wellington Williams (1876–1954), David Henry Sims (1885–1965), and Henry Young Tookes (1882–1948). [back]
3. Charles has not been identified. [back]
