The Crisis

The Crisis was a monthly magazine put out by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), an organization that advocated for African-American civil rights, and was edited by the black activist intellectual W. E. B. Du Bois. Heralding the style and substance of the Harlem Renaissance, The Crisis reached from 60,000 to nearly 100,000 readers monthly during the 1920s. The flowering of black culture known as the Harlem Renaissance took inspiration from the emergence of pan-Africanism as an intellectual and political movement, and a growing sense of racial pride. In an era when white publications largely ignored African Americans, The Crisis presented a mix of news of African-American accomplishment; exposes of southern and northern racism; reports on efforts to improve the political, economic, and social circumstances of African Americans; and incisive editorials penned by Du Bois himself. The magazine also promoted African-American artistic production by publishing the work of and sponsoring contests for writers, composers, and visual artists.

Source: The Crisis, May 1929—American Social History Project.