Dear Mr. Chesnutt,

I recently read your article titled What is a White Man and was intrigued by the subjects and arguments you bring forth. I too am a man who is constantly questioning the status of the black race in America. I believe that the issues we raise are going to be the biggest struggles for America in the 20th century.

Although we are now freemen in the eyes of the law, black people have yet to be freed from the mental shackles placed on us by society. We have been dehumanized as a people for so long and now they say we shall be reborn. But can we truly be Americans? Even though they say we are free, you and I know that we are not. Our brothers and sisters in the south are living in an economic slavery that they cannot escape. In the eyes of the law and the gaze of the public, we are still the “other”. We are the problem. We are the Negro problem.

You question, “what is a white man” and “what is a black man” and sadly we have no say in what we think we are. Our bodies are still not our own. They call this freedom? A man who is merely 1/16th black is thrown out of the first class stagecoach because he does not belong. They call this freedom? A mulatto child will always be considered illegitimate because a black and white union is still impermissible under the law. How can they call this freedom? We are still the second-class citizens bound by our enslaved past. Are chains may have taken new form, but we are still shackled by white society.

I hope that you continue writing on these subjects of race in America. We have a long road ahead of us, but I believe that the veil can be lifted from our faces and that America will someday be ours too.

Your Friend,
W.E.B. DuBois

Questions:
1. Chesnutt talks a lot about mulatto children being inherently illegitimate because of the inability of black and white union under the law. Was this issue a legal matter or simply a matter of social stigma?
2. Why didn’t the government do more to incorporate former slaves after emancipation? Is it true that some slaves stayed with their masters even after being emancipated?