Charles Chesnutt
Author And Activist, Charles Waddell Chesnutt Received The NAACP's Spingarn Medal On This Date In 1928 For His
"pioneer work as a literary artist depicting the life and struggle of Americans of Negro descent, and for his long and useful career as a scholar, worker and freeman in one of America's greatest cities."
Chesnutt Was A Master Short Story Writer From Fayetteville, North Carolina. His Paternal Grandfather Was A White Slaveholder. Chesnutt, Himself, Looked White But Lived His Life As A "Voluntary Negro," A Term Applied To Fair-Skinned Blacks Who Willingly Embraced Their Blackness.
Issues Of "Passing," Racial Identity And Mescegenation Would Be Recurring Themes In Chesnutt's Writings, Throughout His Career.
Like Paul Lawrence Dunbar, Chesnutt Used Negro Dialect And Folklore In His Works.
At Various Times He Worked As A School Teacher, School Principal, Court Stenographer, Journalist And Lawyer.
In 1880 He Was Appointed Principal Of The Fayetteville Normal School, Known Today As Fayetteville State University. He Headed The School For Three Years Before Moving To Cleveland, Ohio. The University's Chesnutt Library, Was Named In His Honor.
Charles Chesnutt Gained National Attention As A Writer When Houghton-Mifflin Published His Collection Of Seven Short Stories, The Conjure Woman, In March, 1899.
He Also Wrote Nine Novels, Three Of Which Were Published -- The House Behind The Cedars (1900), The Marrow Of Tradition (1901) And The Colonel's Dream (1905).
Chesnutt Was A Staunch Member Of The NAACP. He Worked With W. E. B. DuBois And Booker T. Washington, In The Cause Of African American Advancement In America.
Charles W. Chesnutt Died November 15, 1932.
"In Order For Black History To Live, We Must Continue To Breathe Life Into It." -- Hubert Gaddy, Jr
