Walter F. White to Charles W. Chesnutt, 20 February 1923
[1]
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF COLORED PEOPLE
70 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK
TELEPHONE WATKINS 80981
February 20, 1923.2
Mr. Charles W. Chesnutt
1105 Williamson Bldg.
Cleveland, Ohio.
My dear Mr Chesnutt:
Last year you very generously contributed $25.00 to the work of the N.A.A.C.P.3 Two recent happenings in connection with the work of the Association prompt me to write and urge you to renew for the coming year your contribution of last year.
The first of these is the great victory achieved yesterday when the United States Supreme Court reversed the convictions and the sentences to death of six of the colored men connected with the Arkansas riots of October, 1919.4 For three and a half years at a cost of more than $14,000.00 the Association has battled against tremendous odds to save the lives of these men who were accused of organizing to massacre white people, but in reality were organized to protest legally against economic exploitation. The victory in the Supreme Court on yesterday means the saving of the lives of twelve men thus sentenced to death and the release of sixty-seven others sentenced to long prison terms.5 Even more important is the fact that the decision opens up the entire question of peonage and economic exploitation which, after all, strikes at the very fundamentals of the whole race problem.
The second event is the temporary setback in our efforts to secure Federal anti-lynching legislation. For ten years we have sought to arouse the public conscience of America to the evils of lynching. We secured, as you know, the introduction of a Federal anti-lynching bill which passed the House of Representatives and was defeated in the Senate by a filibuster led by Southern Democrats, though much of the blame also rests upon Northern Senators who were apathetic in their support of the measure. We were disappointed, of course, that victory eluded us when it seem to be almost achieved.6 We are not, however, discouraged but are redoubling our efforts which will never be ended until lynching has been entirely abolished.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS7
[2]
C. W. Chesnutt -2- February 20, 1923.
I need not go further into detail regarding the work which we are attempting to do. I do sincerely trust that it meets with your approval and that you will continue to give your moral and financial support to our work.
Please make checks payable to J. E. Spingarn, Treasurer.8
Very sincerely yours, Walter F. White Assistant Secretary. WFW:B
[3]
How MCrow
LB Davenport[?]
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 in the body 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 MOORFIELD STOREY VICE-PRESIDENTS ARCHIBALD H. GRIMKÉ REV. JOHN HAYNES HOLMES BISHOP JOHN HURST ARTHUR B. SPINGARN MARY B. TALBERT OSWALD GARRISON VILLARD JAMES WELDON JOHNSON, SECRETARY WALTER WHITE, ASSISTANT SECRETARY EXECUTIVE OFFICERS MARY WHITE OVINGTON CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD J. E. SPINGARN, TREASURER DR. W. E. B. DU BOIS, EDITOR OF THE CRISIS ROBERT W. BAGNALL, DIRECTOR OF BRANCHES WILLIAM PICKENS, ADDIE W. HUNTON, FIELD SECRETARIES" [back]
2. This letter from Walter White (1893–1955) on behalf of the NAACP predates White's and Chesnutt's other extant correspondence by over three years; it was likely a form letter sent out to many NAACP members. [back]
3. 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 began publication of a monthly journal, The Crisis, under editor W. E. B. Du Bois. Chesnutt's involvement with the NAACP extended over many years, and included attending conferences, presiding at NAACP events in Cleveland, publishing four stories and one essay in The Crisis (1912, 1915, 1924, 1926, and 1930), and being awarded in 1928 the organization's highest honor, the Spingarn Medal. [back]
4. Now known as the Elaine massacre, the events that took place from September 30 to October 2, 1919 ,near Elaine, Arkansas, caused the deaths of at least 100 Black community members and five White men. Protests over the exploitation of Black tenant farmers escalated into widespread violence against Black protesters and bystanders and the arrests of 122 Black men, twelve of whom were sentenced to death. Walter White (1893–1955) had gone to Elaine on behalf of the NAACP to report on the events in its monthly magazine, The Crisis, and in Black newspapers. [back]
5. Following the massacre and subsequent arrests in October 1919 near Elaine, Arkansas, twelve Black men were sentenced to death, and 67 others to lesser sentences, in a case that was appealed, with legal support financed by the NAACP, all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. On February 19, 1923, the Court under Chief Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841–1935) ruled 6–2 in Moore v. Dempsey (261 U.S.86) that the twelve men had been denied due process as per the Fourteenth Amendment. This landmark legal case made it more difficult for state courts to violate the federal constitutional rights of defendants. [back]
6. The Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill was first introduced in 1918 by Leonidas C. Dyer (1871–1957), a White Republican U.S. Congressman from Missouri. In January 1922, it passed in the House, but was then blocked by Democratic filibusters beginning on December 2, 1922. The NAACP had begun its anti-lynching campaign shortly after its founding in the 1910s and began to lobby forcefully for the Dyer Bill in 1918 after initial doubts about its constitutionality. As a member and sometime leader in the organization, Chesnutt would have received regular updates and calls to action about the bill's progress; as it was being debated in November 1921, he wrote to at least two Ohio representatives, Harry Gahn (1880–1962) and Theodore Burton (1851–1929), in support of the bill. [back]
7. For readability, the remainder of the letterhead, which continues on the verso of the page, is not transcribed in the body of the letter but is included in this footnote as unformatted text. This portion of the letterhead can be seen in its entirety in the accompanying image of the letter. The text is as follows: "BOARD OF DIRECTORS Chairman, Mary White Ovington, New York Baltimore Bishop John Hurst Boston Joseph Prince Loud Moorfield Storey Butler R. Wilson Buffalo Mary B. Talbert Chicago Jane Addams Dr. C. E. Bentley Cleveland Harry E. Davis Jersey City Dr. George E. Cannon Los Angeles E. Burton Ceruti Memphis R. R. Church New Haven George W. Crawford New York Rev. Hutchens C. Bishop Dr. W. E. B. Du Bois Rev. John Haynes Holmes Florence Kelley Paul Kennaday John E. Milholland Ella Rush Murray Harry H. Pace Arthur B. Spingarn J. E. Spingarn Herbert K. Stockton Charles H. Studin Philadelphia William English Walling Dr. J. Max Barber St. Louis Dr. William A. Sinclair Springfield Hon. Charles Nagel Topeka Rev. G. R. Waller Washington Hon. Arthur Capper Nannie H. Burroughs Prof. George William Cook Archibald H. Grimké Charles Edward Russell Neval H. Thomas" [back]
8. Joel Elias Spingarn (1875–1939) was a White Jewish civil rights activist, literary scholar and life-long Republican from New York City who was an active member of the NAACP from its earliest days (as chair of its board 1913–1919, treasurer 1919–1930, and president 1930–1939). He established the Spingarn Medal, the NAACP's highest honor, in 1914; Chesnutt received it in 1928. [back]
9. Howard Malley Crow (1882–1963), Leroy Benjamin Davenport (1888–1966), and John Thompson Scott (1890–1962) were all White Cleveland lawyers practicing in the 1920s. All had gotten their law degrees from Western Reserve University and were, like Chesnutt, members of the Cleveland Bar Association. [back]
10. Susan Perry Chesnutt (1861–1940) was from a well-established Black family in Fayetteville, North Carolina, and worked as a teacher at Fayetteville's Howard School before marrying Chesnutt. They were married from 1878 until his death in 1932 and had four children: Ethel, Helen, Edwin, and Dorothy. Susan led an active life in Cleveland. [back]
11. Neither "Miss Rogers" nor "Ran" have been identified. [back]
