Harry E. Davis to Charles W. Chesnutt, 28 September 1922
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Ohio House of Representatives
1921–22
HARRY E. DAVIS
CUYAHOGA COUNTY
(*In accordance with the resolution adopted by the meeting of the 26th, I request that you promptly forward check for $5.00 to be applied as the charter fee of the Grand Boulie2
I hope you will see your way clear to go ahead with us even if you cannot be active. Your membership will add much to the character and prestige of the new Boule
H.E.D.Correspondent: Harry E. Davis (1882–1955) was a Black lawyer with a degree from Western Reserve University's law school (1908). He became a Republican state legislator in Ohio and served four terms in the lower house of the Ohio General Assembly (1921–1928). From 1928 to 1934, Davis was a member of the Cleveland Civil Service Commission (president 1932–1934). He later served in the Ohio Senate (1947–1948 and 1953–1954), the upper house of the General Assembly. He was in leadership positions in the Cleveland chapters of many racial-justice organizations, including the NAACP, the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, the Black freemasons, and the Black fraternity Sigma Pi Phi.
1. As a member of the Ohio House of Representatives from 1921–1928, Harry E. Davis would have been in the capital, Columbus, Ohio, frequently, and been supplied with official letterhead stationary, but he corrected this letter to the address of his office in Cleveland, at 202 Engineers Building. [back]
2. The Black fraternal organization Sigma Pi Phi, known as the Boulé (the Greek word 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 Ohio-based chapter. 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]
