The monitor., 1928-06-15
NEGRO NOVELIST
HAS Been AWARDED
SPINeARN MEDAL
Charles Wadell Chestnut, Brilliant
Man of Letters, Honored for
Outstanding Services in
Chosen Field.
HAS HAD AN EvENTFUL CAREER
Acknowledged Pioneer in Depicting
the Life and Struggle of
Americans of African
Descent.

| New York City, June 1.-The 18th
annual award of the Spingarn medal
this year was made to Charles Wad-
dell Chestnut, of Cleveland, novelist,
short story writer, and public spirit
ed citizen, according to an announce
ment by the National Association for
the Advancement of Colored People.
The medal, which goes each year
to the man or woman of African de-
scent and United States citizenship
for most distinguished achievement in
some field of honorable endeavor, is
given to Mr.. Chestnut for his "pio-
neer work as literary artist depict
ing the life and struggle of Ameri-
cans of Negro descent, and for his
long and useful career as scholar,
worker, and freeman of one of Amer
ica's greatest cities" The medal is
to be presented in Los Angeles on
July 3, by Lieutenant Governor Bu-
ron L. Fits of California, at the 10Th
annual conference of the National
Association for the Advancement of
Colored People.
Mr.. Chestnut was born in Cleve-
land, June 20, 1853, and moved in
early youth with his family to North
Carolina, where at the age of is he
began teaching in the public schools.
AT % years of age he was principal
of the State Normal school at Fay
etteville. He came to New York
City in 1888 to do newspaper work
and then went to Cleveland where he
obtained employment as stenogra-
pher, being admitted to the bar in
1887.
In that year he began in The At
lantic Monthly a series of stories lat
er collected in book entitled ''The
Conjure Woman" Mr.. Chestnut
published two books in 1899, "The
Wife of His Youth and Other Stories
of the Color Line" and Life of
Frederick Douglass" They were fol-
lowe in 1900 by "The House Behind
the Cedars," in 1901 by "The Marrow
of Tradition" and in 1905 by "The
Colonel's Dream"
Mr.. Chestnut is one of the first
writer's to have carefully studied the
dialect and the ways of southern Ne
groes, as well as of white people in
their relation to Negroes, and to give
literary form to these studies in his
stories and novels. A new novel by
Mr. Chestnut is in preparation.
Previous winners of the Spingarn
medal are as follows: 1915, DR.. E.
E. Just, professor of physiology at
Howard university medical school, for
researches in biology; 1916, Major
Charles Young, u. S. A., for services
in organizing the Liberian Constab-
ulary and developing roads in Liberia;
1917, Harry T. Burleigh, for excel
lence in the field of creative music;
1918, William Stanley Braithewaite,
for distinguished achievement in lit
erature; 1919, Archibald H. Grimke,
| for 70 years of distinguished services
to his country and his race; 1920, DR..
| w. E. B. Du Bois, for founding and
calling together the Pan-African
congress; 1921, Charles S. Gilpin, for
his achievement in the title role of
Eugene O'Neilps Emperor Jones;"
1922, Mary B. Talbert, for service to
colored women and for the restora-
tion of the home of Frederick Doug
lass; 1928, Prof. George W. Carver,
for distinguished research in agricul-
tural chemistry; 1924, Roland Hayes,
for achievement in singing; 1925,
James Weldon Johnson, author, dip
lomat, and public servant; 1926, DR..
Carter G. Woodson, for research in
the history of the Negro; 1927, An
thony Overton, for achievement in the
field of business, particularly insur-
ance.
The committee making the award
this year is composed of Bishop John
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