Cleveland is honored by the honor to be conferred on Charles W. Chesnutt, novelist and lawyer. To him is awarded the medal which goes each year to the one of African descent and American citizenship who achieves the most distinguished service in some field of honorable endeavor. The medal goes to Mr. Chesnutt for his "pioneer work as a literary artist depicting the life and struggles of Americans of Negro descent, and for his long and useful career as scholar, worker and freeman of one of America's greatest cities."
It is a bestowal fittingly made. Mr. Chesnutt has been an untiring worker for good causes, a writer of strength and grace and sound purpose. Some of his earlier books have been all but forgotten by a generation always eager for the new, but they will long remain as an expression of a brave soul pouring itself out in effective protest against racial prejudice. Charming tales they are, too; readable romances created by a word artist.
This service medal could not be more appropriately awarded. Cleveland congratulates Charles W. Chesnutt.