Allen A. Wesley to Charles W. Chesnutt, 6 June 1922
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Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity
GRAND BOULE1
The vote from the Several Boules is nearly in. I thought I would get in touch with you as your name heads the list. You will please indicate to the group that they will soon have some positive information relative to the setting apart your group— In the list that was sent to me no addresses were given so I have to address this letter without any particular street & number.
Please let me hear from you or the one who heads your group so that I may be able to give and get the information which will be needed in the near future.2
Yours Hopefully, Dr Allen A. Wesley G. G.Correspondent: Allen Alexander Wesley (1856–1929) was a prominent Black physician from the Midwest, educated at Fisk University and Northwestern University's Medical school, who practiced in Chicago, helped found its early Black Provident Hospital, and was a high-ranking medical officer in Cuba during the Spanish-American War (1898). He was one of the founding members of the Chicago chapter of Sigma Pi Phi (Boulé), begun in 1907, and in the 1920s he helped the effort to establish chapters in other midwestern cities.
1. The Black fraternal organization Sigma Pi Phi, known as the Boulé (Greek for "council"), was founded in Philadelphia in 1904 by and for Black male professionals, who were at the time excluded from most White professional organizations. In 1922, Harry E. Davis (1882–1955) tried to establish a chapter in Cleveland, but could not gather enough potential members; the chapter, Tau Boulé, was not founded until June 1925, as the third in Ohio. Several prominent Black Clevelanders of Chesnutt's acquaintance became members, but he did not join. See Charles H. Wesley, History of Sigma Pi Phi: First of the Negro-American Greek-Letter Fraternities, Fiftieth Anniversary Edition (Washington, DC: The Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, 1954), 176–178 and 369–370. [back]
2. See the letter from Black Cleveland politician Harry E. Davis to Chesnutt of September 28, 1922 and the resulting correspondence regarding the (at the time unsuccessful) attempt to found a local Boulé chapter. [back]
