Charles W. Chesnutt

Charles W. Chesnutt (1858-1932), African American lawyer, author and social reformer wrote The House Behind The Cedars (1900). He is considered one of the pioneers in writing on racial themes.

Charles Waddell Chesnutt was born on 20 June, 1858 in Cleveland, Ohio, to parents Andrew Jackson Chesnutt and Ann Maria Sampson (d.1871), by that time freed blacks. His brother Lewis was born two years later and his sister Lillian was born in 1871. His grandfather was white, and Chesnutt's sometimes controversial stories deal with the issue of people who were legally black but could "pass" themselves as white due to the fact that their skin was so light. Chesnutt's father, the son of a slaveholding farmer and his mistress, had served as a Union teamster for four years during the Civil War. The family moved to Fayetteville, North Carolina in 1866 to run a grocery store where young Charles helped stock the shelves and make deliveries. He was an avid reader and keen observer of the people and the socio-political times which was reflected in his future writings.