Charles Chestnutt

4 Pages 913 Words

“Without struggle, there is no progress”.
In 1899, Charles Chesnutt was commissioned by Small Maynard and
Company to write a biography of Frederick Douglass to be included in the
famous Beacon Series. The Beacon Biographies contained volumes on eminent
Americans such as Ralph Waldo Emerson. Chesnutt was the first African American
invited to write for this series and Frederick Douglass was the first African American
biography included.
Chesnutt and Douglass were men who played important roles in the history
of African-Americans and the history of our country. Although Chesnutt was not an
eminent American in the Beacon Series, he could have qualified for inclusion because
of his pioneering role in American fiction and his consistent efforts to agitate the
American conscience regarding discrimination against blacks.
In fact, during the year 1899, he wrote Frederick Douglass, Chesnutt published
Two works with Houghton Mifflin, Boston: The Conjure Woman and
The Wife of His Youth and Other Stories. The two books were the first works by an
African American to be published by a major publishing house. As a result of these
Publications, Chesnutt recognized in American literary history as the first
African American author to receive high critical acclaim. These works were
Followed by the novels: One House Behind The Cedars, The Marrow of Tradition,
and The Colonel’s Dream. Through his public speeches and his polemical writings,
Chesnutt fought consistently for the Civil Rights of African Americans. He was a strong
voice against the disfranchisement of African Americans, the showing of racist movies
such as “The Birth of The Nation” and the publication of books denigrating
African Americans. In 1928 Chesnutt, the teacher, the lawyer, the businessman,
and the writer, was awarded the NAACP Spingarn award for contribution to
creative literature and Civil Rights.
Hence, Chesnutt’s biography of Doug...