CRISIS      in  a  FLASH

In response to the 1908 race riots in Springfield, Illinois, the birth of the NAACP came about. The main founders were Ida B. Wells, W.E.B DuBois, Henry Moscowitz, Mary White Ovington, Oswald Garrison Villiard, and William English Walling. They led the “cry” to renew the fight for civil rights and political liberty. The main objective of the NAACP was to make sure that the rights in the 13^th, 14^th, and 15^th Amendments of the United States Constitution were assured to all people. ¹“The NAACP believes the Constitution provides that all of our states and institutions ought to be color blind.” These Amendments pledged “an end to slavery, the equal protection of the law, and universal adult male suffrage, respectively.”

In each issue, there was a special section titled “The NAACP Today^,2” which reported the news and events of the NAACP. Although The Crisis and the NAACP were very much intertwined, The Crisis was legally separated. Except for the articles included in “The NAACP Today,” only some of the editions issued may or may not have represented the official position of the NAACP.

During the early twentieth century, Dubois was considered to 

be the most significant, influential, black leader of that

time. Having tremendous accomplishments behind him, Dubois

was a renowned scholar, writer, editor, and activist. During

Dubois early years, he work at a county school, took on jobs

as a writer and an editor, all while he was attending Fisk

college. Upon graduating from Fisk, Dubois attends Harvard. 

Further down the road, after Dubois completes twenty years of

schooling he accepts a teaching job at Wilberforce in Ohio.

         In addition, teaching two years at Wilberforce, leads to a

position to conduct a research project in Philadelphia’s seventh

ward slums. Given this opportunity, Dubois was able to study

blacks as a social system. After completing the research program

Dubois accepts a job at Atlanta University .While Dubois was at

Atlanta he wrote and conducted studies about, Negro morality,

urbanization, college -bred Negroes, the Negro church, and Negro

Crime. These studies exposed the truth that about what being

black was like. These findings of this research study encourages

social reform . In response to the studies he constructed he wrote

numerous books. One book that stands out is The Soul of Black

Folk. This book questions the ideology of the black conscious.

       Also, Dubois was one of the founding members of the “Niagara

Movement”. Invitations to the “Niagara Movement went out all over

the country. Only Twenty-nine men from fourteen states answered the

invitation.  The main goals of the “Niagara Movement” were to

encourage civil justice and abolish discrimination .However this

movement did not last long. As an attempt to keep the movement

alive the NAACP was founded.

       The NAACP hired Dubois in 1910 to work as its director of Publicity

  and Research. While working at the NAACP, Dubois summits a proposal

to produce a monthly magazine. His proposal was answered and he was

placed as editor of the magazine” The Crisis. The first issue

appeared in American main stream in November 1910.During Dubois

years as editor, he published many African American writers work,

which were associated with the Harlem Renaissance. Having the role

of editor came with gain of social power. According the Chicago

Defender,” Dubois position as editor of The Crisis made him the

most powerful African American in the Organization at the

time”(Chicago Defender,1). Many of the articles submitted within

The Crisis were produced by Dubois himself.  “However, Dubois was

determined that The Crisis would reflect his own ideology”

(Rudwick, 214). This quote emphasizes that Dubois used The Crisis

as a vehicle to promote his ideas. Dubois states” With the Crisis,

I essayed a new role of interpreting to the world of hindrance and

aspirations of American Negroes” (DuBois, 256). Within The Crisis,

Dubois strongly debates issues about American Negro white

relations, and the international matter which involved race.

    ”Dubois initial position as editor was in line with the

NAACP’s liberal programme of social reform and racial equality

,but by the 1930’s Dubois was advocating a form of black

separateness”(Wikipedia ,1). Dubois strong opinions lead to

conflict with the NAACP, therefore the conflict lead to his

resignation. Overall, Dubois contributed the legacy of The

Crisis in way profound way in which, he used The Crisis as

a voice for the African American society to promote Black Intellect. 

Johnson is renown for the song he wrote “Lift every voice and sing”,
which is the African American anthem. Through out Johnson’s life he
had many careers .He was a poet, an author, served as an Ambassador
in Venezuela  and Nicaragua ,a civil rights leader ,a distortion, a
novelist, composer, and he was the first black attorney admitted to
the Florida bar. During the early part of the twentieth century
Johnson was considered to be a very profound writer.” James Weldon
Johnson's writings dominated the 1920s as did those of no other
African American writer with the possible exception of W. E. B. Du
Bois” (Fleming,1).One of the most famous books he wrote was “The
Autobiography of an Ex -Colored man”.
    In addition, Johnson joined the NAACP and served as executive
secretary from 1920 to 1930. Johnson was an active civil rights
leader. He redundantly stressed the politics of race. While giving a
speech at Carnie hall ,Johnson said ,”The race problem in the united
States has resolved itself into a question into a question of saving
black men’s bodies and white men’s soul (De Santis,82).During the
years Johnson worked for the NAACP he actively took part in the Crisis
Magazine. Many articles Johnson published were added to many Crisis
copies. Overall, Johnson was a great contributor in the fight of civil
rights.

Zora Neale Hurston was one of the most creative writers in the Harlem Renaissance. She was a novelist, folklorist, and anthropologist. Although her work was pretty practical and she influenced many generations of African-American writers, her reputation fell into decline. In 1918, she registered at Howard University. She met Alain Locke, the professor of philosophy and authority on black culture, and was greatly motivated by him. It was here when she came with the idea to seek after a fictional career. “John Redding Goes to Sea”, her first short story, was published in the Howard literary magazine The Stylus in 1921. She continued to add more of her stories to different magazines in the next years.

She was then offered a scholarship in anthropology and transferred to Barnard College. Once she came to New York City, she quickly became familiar with the Harlem Renaissance and was a member. She merged anthropology and her literature together and formed a very creative form of writing. “Through a Rosenwald Fellowship (1934) and a Guggenheim Fellowship (1935-1936) Zora engaged in her most fruitful anthropological field research which produced her finest literature.”  In the 1930’s, Hurston was very creative and productive. She wrote three novels and a travelogue. She finally died in 1960 in Fort Pierce, Fla. working on her last book The Life of Herod the Great.

Civil rights leader Walter White served as chief executive of the N.A.A.C.P. from
1929 until his death. White, coincidentally a very fair-skinned man with blue
eyes, could have possibly led an undetected life as a white man but chose not to,
instead he fought for equality for African-Americans.
  A major event which influenced his life and tenacity greatly was the race riot in
Atlanta, Georgia; he escaped the horde only because his fair skin tone allowed him
to pass through it safely. After he joined the NAACP, his fair appearance enabled
him to travel to communities where lynchings had occurred. Passing as a white man,
he gathered the details and would then publish the information in the NAACP
magazine THE CRISIS and various newspapers.

Following James Weldon Johnson, in1929, White was given the executive director
position in the NAACP. He wanted the federal government to pass an anti-lynching
law. In 1934, a long time dispute between White and W.E.B. Du Bois came to the
surface after Du Bois wrote an article on segregation which was contrary to the
NAACP's policy and beliefs, leaving DuBois to resign.
 

 Langston Hughes, was one of the worlds most astounded and renowned poets, The
first published work by Langston Hughes was printed in The CRISIS magazine in
1921 when Langston was only 19 years old. He was known as the “busboy poet” when
discovered by chance in his bussing job, cleaning off a table and dropping off
his work to a customer. He was given a full scholarship to Lincoln University
and completed his bachelors and published his poetry in Crisis (1923-24) and in
Alain Locke's anthology The New Negro (1925). He was one of the first black
authors, who could support himself by his writings. In the 1930s Hughes traveled
in the Soviet Union, Haiti, and Japan. His major early influences were Walt
Whitman, Carl Sandburg, as well as the black poets Paul Laurence Dunbar, a
master of both dialect and verse, and Claude McKay, a radical socialist who also
wrote in lyric poetry.
  Hughes' first volume of poetry was The Weary Blues. That same year, Hughes
returned to college, this time as an older student and an acclaimed poet at the
nation's first African American college, Lincoln University, in Pennsylvania.
Spending any available weekend soaking up theater and music in nearby New York
City, Hughes satisfied academic requirements during the week. His second volume
was Fine Clothes to the Jew, which was published in 1927. The Harlem Renaissance
was in effect and Hughes became one of the celebrated young talents who flourished
it . There was some type of controversy that accompanied him with his new found
fame, in part it was some Black-Americans who did not agree with his “extravagant
dialect and personal interpretation” in his work. He faced harsh criticism, up to
and including the bad impression that he was not in fact a great poet, but a
“low-budget” writer in Harlem..
  As Hughes completed his years at Lincoln University in 1929, he also completed his
first novel, Not Without Laughter. At this time, coming out of school, he was still receiving financial assistance from Charlotte Mason, the patron he shared with
Zora Neale Hurston and Alain Locke. Hughes also accepted her advice regarding the
contents and tone of the novel. He expressed disappointment with the completed
novel, but the text remains in print, retaining uplifting representations of the
diverse populations within the black community.
  Hughes began to tour the South with his poetry. He also went to Russia with a
group of African Americans whom assisted him with a film project that never was
completed. He continued with his writing and eventually became a columnist for the
evening journal. Hughes died on May 22nd, 1967 after a 22 tenure as a columnist.
His death resulted from infection post-prostate surgery.

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