Charles W. Chesnutt to W. E. B. Du Bois, 27 June 1903

Charles W. Chesnutt to W. E. B. Du Bois, 27 June 1903

On June 27, 1903, the ground-breaking African American writer of fiction, Charles Chesnutt, sent letters to both W. E. B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington. Chesnutt had a long-standing friendship with Washington, but he aligned in thought more with Du Bois who...
Letter from the Citizens of Warren County, Mississippi

Letter from the Citizens of Warren County, Mississippi

In the wake of white supremacist violence in Clinton, Mississippi, citizens of Vicksburg wrote their governor in September 1875, warning that if protection was not provided to voters, they would be “forced away from the polls and not allowed to vote.” Addressing Gov....
Lynn Riggs to Barrett Clark, Election Day Letter, 1928

Lynn Riggs to Barrett Clark, Election Day Letter, 1928

The Cherokee dramatist Lynn Riggs, the author of six plays produced on Broadway, was born in the Cherokee Nation, Indian Territory, in 1899, a decade into the land runs that led to the loss of millions of acres of Indigenous land. Soon after his eighth birthday in...