Professor Tess Chakkalakal speaks on Charles Chesnutt, who was born to "free persons of color" in Cleveland, 1858. He passed the Ohio bar exam with high scores and could have practiced law if he chose to pass as white, but chose not to, and was denied entry to the bar on the basis of his race.

While supporting his family as a court reporter, Chesnutt became known as "the pioneer of the color line" for exploring racial and social identity in fiction after the Civil War.

Chakkalakal is associate professor of Africana studies and English at Bowdoin College.  She has published widely on 19th-century African American and American literature.