Charles W. Chesnutt to Walter White, 16 October 1931 Charles W. Chesnutt Stephanie Browner Kenneth M. Price Matt Cohen Transcription and encoding proofing and encoding Swift, Bianca Matheis, Caitlin S. Gilmore, Samantha Weakly, Laura K. Center for Digital Research in the Humanities, University of Nebraska-Lincoln The New School University of Nebraska-Lincoln UCARE Program 2022 The Charles W. Chesnutt Archive
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 Charles W. Chesnutt to Walter White, 16 October 1931 October 16, 1931 Transcription derived from scan of the original. Western Reserve Historical Society Charles Waddell Chesnutt Collection 1889-1932 MS 3370, Box 1 Correspondence Cleveland, Ohio Michigan typed copy unsigned Chesnutt, Charles W. (Waddell) White, Walter New York, New York Caitlin Matheisproofed Samantha Gilmoreannotated Caitlin Matheisproofed Bianca Swiftproofing and encoding Bianca SwiftTranscribing Encoding October 16, 1931
Mr. Walter White, Secretary, N.A.A.C.P., 69 Fifth Avenue, New York City.
My dear Walter,

I hope you will pardon my not having answered sooner your two letters urging renewal of my annual contribution to the N.A.A.C.P. The first of them, dated August 27th, came to Cleveland a few days after my return from my vacation in Michigan. On the day that the follow-up letter arrived, I went home from my office sick, and have been confined at home and practically in bed until day before yesterday, when I made my first appearance at the office.

The present economic crisis has shot my personal income all to pieces. I had about reached the conclusion that I could retire and live on my dividends, when my dividends disappeared, and with their disappearance my stocks shrank to almost the "irreducible minimum", some for which I had paid $98.00 going as low as $5.00 a share, and some for which I had paid $50.00 a share going down to $1.25, hardly enough to pay the broker's fee for selling them. I have been holding on to them in the hope of a comeback, but so far the hope has proved a vain one. I was never so hard up in my life, and in spite of the noble work of the N.A.A.C.P., I have to confess that I cannot at the present moment contribute anything to it.

Family joins me in regards and regrets. I am living in the hope that things will pick up ere long, although the present prospects are not very reassuring.

Sincerely yours, CWC:MK