Charles Waddell Chesnutt (June 20, 1858 November 15, 1932) was an American novelist, essayist, political activist, and lawyer notable for his novels and short stories that explored complicated questions of race and cultural identity in the post-Civil War Southern. Oscar Micheaux, an African-American the filmmaker and producer, changed two of his works into silent movies in 1926 and 1927. Following the Civil Rights Movement of the twentieth century, interest in Chesnutt's works was reignited. Several of his writings were reprinted, and he got formal acknowledgment. In 2008, a commemorative stamp was issued. Chesnutt created a highly successful court reporting firm in Cleveland in the early twentieth century, which supplied his primary source of income. He became involved in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, where he wrote articles in support of education and legal challenges to discriminatory laws. Andrew Chesnutt and Ann Maria (n e Sampson) Chesnutt, both "free persons of color" from Fayetteville, North Carolina, gave birth to Chesnutt in Cleveland, Ohio. His paternal grandpa had been identified as a white slaveholder. He identified as African American but stated that he was 7/8 white. Chesnutt might "pass" as a white man because of his majority-European background, but he never did.
