Charles Waddell Chesnutt was an African-American author, essayist, lawyer, and activist. He is best known for groundbreaking literary works that concern racial identity in the U.S. South.
Chesnutt was born in Cleveland, Ohio to African-American parents from Fayetteville, North Carolina. Chesnutt was of mixed race—both his grandmothers were African American while both of his grandfathers were white. Though he identified as African American, he often referred to an extensive white slaveholder ancestry and claimed that issues arising from his mixed-race heritage had a profound impact on him as a young man.
Chesnutt published his first book, The Conjure Woman, in 1899. The book was a...
