Charles W. Chesnutt to D. K. Cherry, 21 September 1932
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September 21, 1932
Professor D. K. Cherry,
Kittrell, N. C.
My dear Mr. Cherry:
My wife1 has called my attention to the item in the Baltimore "Afro-American", in which you are said to have sued Kittrell College for upwards of $6,000.00.2 I am sorry the institution is in such shape that it has n't paid you or can't pay you, for undoubtedly you earned the money, and Mrs. Chesnutt and I both hope you may be able to collect it.
I see that you have resigned as president of Kittrell, and I hope, if you are not already placed, that you may find another position in some institution which can pay your salary.
Please give our regards to your wife, my cousin Zilphia.3
We hope the depression will soon be over for all of us, though I suspect it will be worse this winter than it was last, unless there is a general opening up of business which will enable the suffering poor to get adequate relief.
Sincerely yours, CWC:ESCorrespondent: Captain David King Cherry (1883–1956) was a Black North Carolinian whose father had been with the 14th U.S. Colored Artillery during the Civil War. He taught mathematics at the college level in Greensboro, North Carolina, before serving in World War I, then continued his career in higher education. He became president of Kittrell College, a religious Black institution in Kittrell, North Carolina, in 1929. After resigning in 1932, he taught and worked in administration at Knoxville College in Tennessee until 1955.
1. 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]
2. Kittrell College in Kittrell, North Carolina, was a historically Black college affiliated with the AME (African Methodist Episcopal) Church that existed from 1886 to 1975 and experienced severe financial difficulties in the 1930s. Captain David King Cherry (1883–1956) was president from 1929 to 1932, but resigned in July after a merger of the college with Allen University in Columbia, North Carolina. Cherry sued the college for back pay. See "Sues Kitrell for $6,000," The Afro-American (Baltimore; September 17, 1932): 23. [back]
3. Chesnutt confuses two of his cousins here. In 1920, David King Cherry (1883–1956) married Irene Lee Chesnutt (1891–1969), not Zilphia Ione Chesnutt (1886–1981). Both were daughters of Dallas (1850–1917) and (1847–1911) Louise Chesnutt; Dallas was Chesnutt's uncle on his father's side and lived in Wilmington, North Carolina. [back]
