Charles W. Chesnutt - Social and Political Activism

Social and Political Activism

Starting in 1901, Chesnutt turned more energies to his stenography business and, increasingly, to social and political activism. He served on the General Committee of the newly founded National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Working with W. E. B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington, he became one of the early 20th century's most prominent activists and commentators.

Chesnutt contributed some short stories and essays to the NAACP's official magazine, The Crisis, founded in 1910. He did not receive compensation for the publication of these pieces. He wrote a strong essay protesting the southern states' moves to disfranchise blacks at the turn of the 20th century, but their new constitutions and laws survived appeals to the United States Supreme Court, which held that the conditions imposed (of new electoral registration requirements, poll taxes, literacy tests and similar conditions) applied to all residents.

In 1917, Chesnutt protested and successfully shut down showings in Ohio of the controversial film Birth of a Nation, which the NAACP officially protested across the nation.

Chesnutt died on November 15, 1932, at the age of 74. He was interred in Cleveland's Lake View Cemetery.