Letter to Charles Chesnutt from W. E. B. Du Bois

About the Project

W.E.B. Du Bois (1868–1963) was the preeminent African American public intellectual/activist of the early 20th century while Charles Chesnutt (1858–1932) was a prominent author of fictional works that dealt with issues facing African Americans of the era. In this letter from W. E. B. Du Bois to Charles Chesnutt, Du Bois proposes the creation of a “journal” dealing with African American life. This is likely an early expression of his interest in developing what becomes The Crisis, the official journal of the NAACP, which was first published in November 1910. Help us transcribe this letter to learn more about the creation of “The Crisis.”

The Crisis is the official magazine of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Founded by W. E. B. Du Bois (editor), Oswald Garrison Villard, J. Max Barber, Charles Edward Russell, Kelly Miller, W. S. Braithwaite, and Mary Dunlop Maclean, The Crisis has been in continuous print since 1910, making it one of the oldest African American-focused publications in the world. Named after the popular James Russell Lowe poem, “The Present Crisis,” the Crisis presented articles and essays on civil rights, history, politics, and culture.

Show pages needing (scroll down to load more): Transcription | All

Completed!

Project Progress (details)

1 pages completed

Difficulty

4 out of 5

(details)

About Project Difficulty

Level 1 - BEGINNER

Content: all typed
Language: English
Format: letters, diaries, flyers, pamphlets, and one-page documents
Subject Area Expertise/Special Skills: none required

Level 2

Content: mostly typed, handwritten in print, or otherwise very clearly written/readable
Language: English
Format: memorabilia, advertisements, image captions, telegrams, diaries, letters, notes
Subject Area Expertise/Special Skills: none required

Level 3 - INTERMEDIATE

Content: typed and handwritten materials in cursive or print
Language: English
Format: newspaper clippings, scrapbooks, letters/diaries/notes that may include annotations or margin notes
Subject Area Expertise/Special Skills: experience reading cursive writing may be useful

Level 4

Content: handwritten materials, primarily in cursive or somewhat difficult to read (predominantly from the 19th and 20th centuries) , audio recordings that are relatively easy to hear/decipher, and scientific materials
Language: English and/or other languages that use Roman script but may require the use of diacritics (French, Spanish, German, Italian, etc.)
Format: audio recordings, letters, diaries, notes and other written materials, projects with templated fields and special instructions
Subject Area Expertise/Special Skills: some knowledge of non-English Roman-character/script languages and diacritics may be useful, as well as experience reading cursive handwriting. A general knowledge or familiarity with scientific terminology.

Level 5 - ADVANCED

Content: handwritten materials in cursive (from the 19th century or earlier) or in a non-Roman script language, audio recordings that are difficult to hear or are not in English, specialty materials/projects such as numismatics projects and the Project Phaedra notebooks
Language: foreign languages that use non-Roman characters (Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, Greek/Cyrillic, Native American and Indigenous languages, etc.) and English
Format: audio recordings, columned data/tables, manuscripts, letters, diaries, notes, currency sheets, coins
Subject Area Expertise/Special Skills: knowledge of a specific language and access to a keyboard with the characters in that language may be required for certain projects. Experience reading cursive handwriting and familiarity with 19th century (or prior) handwriting and conventions/abbreviations may be useful, as well as knowledge of scientific terminology, astrophysics data, or linguistics.

Contributing
members

Total
pages

Complete