W. E. B. Du Bois to Charles W. Chesnutt, 8 September 1924
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EDITORIAL ROOMS OF
THE CRISIS
69 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK, N. Y.
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
FOR THE
ADVANCEMENT OF COLORED PEOPLE1
W. E. BURGHARDT DU BOIS
September 8, 1924.
Mr. Charles W. Chestnutt,
9719 Lamont Avenue,
Cleveland, Ohio.
My dear Mr. Chestnutt:
Will you act as one of the judges in the Crisis Fiction Contest?2 We will read over the bulk of the stories submitted and send you about a half dozen or fewer of the best for your judgement. I trust you will be able to do this.
Again, you promised to look among your manuscripts and pick us out a story for publication in The Crisis.3 Will you do this at your earliest convenience? I shall appreciate it.
Very sincerely yours, W.E.B. Du Bois WEBD/PFCorrespondent: William Edward Burghardt Du Bois (1868–1963) was a sociologist, historian, and world-renowned civil rights activist. After completing coursework at the University of Berlin and Harvard University, Du Bois became the first African American to earn a doctorate from Harvard in 1895. He was a professor of history, sociology, and economics at Atlanta University (1897–1910 and again in the 1930s). He was a prominent leader of the Niagara Movement and helped found the NAACP in 1909. As the editor of the NAACP's journal, The Crisis, from 1910 to 1931, Du Bois published four of Chesnutt's short stories as well as two of his essays. See "The Doll" (April 1912), "Mr. Taylor's Funeral" (April/May 1915), "The Marked Tree" (Dec 1924/Jan 1925), and "Concerning Father" (May 1930); and "Women's Rights" (1915) and "The Negro in Art" (November 1926).
1. 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 in 1912 began publication of a monthly journal, The Crisis, which was edited by W. E. B. Du Bois from 1912 to 1944. Chesnutt's involvement with the NAACP extended over many years, and included serving on its General Committee, attending conferences, presiding at NAACP events in Cleveland, publishing four stories and two essays in The Crisis (1912, 1915, 1924, 1926, 1930, and 1931), and being awarded in 1928 the organization's highest honor, the Spingarn Medal. [back]
2. In 1925, The Crisis held its inaugural contest for what were initially called the Amy Spingarn Prizes in literature and art. The three fiction prizes (for $100, $50, and $20) were announced in August 1925 and printed in The Crisis in the following months. Chesnutt evaluated submissions, as did White writers H. G. Wells (1866–1946), Sinclair Lewis (1885–1951), and Mary White Ovington (1865–1951). Chesnutt again judged stories for the prize in 1926, alongside White writers Ernest Poole (1880–1950) and Otelia Cromwell (1874–1972). [back]
3. Chesnutt's short story "The Marked Tree" was published in The Crisis 29, no. 2 (December 1924): 59–64; and 29, no. 3 (January 1925): 110–113. [back]
