Author Description

"The Messenger was the third most popular magazine of the Harlem Renaissance, after The Crisis and Opportunity. Unlike the other two, though, The Messenger was not tied to a civil rights organization. Labor activist A. Philip Randolph and economist Chandler Owen started the magazine in 1917 to advance to the black masses the cause of socialism. They believed that a socialist society was the only one that would be free from racism and "the cheap, peanut politics of the old reactionary Negro leaders."" "The socialist ideology of The Messenger, "the only magazine of scientific radicalism in the world published by Negroes," was reflected in the works published in its pages. The Messenger Reader contains poetry, stories, and essays from, among others, Paul Robeson, Zora Neale Hurston, J.A. Rogers, Eric Walrond, and Dorothy West. Most of this material has never been published outside of the magazine. The Messenger Reader is a welcome addition to the history of black literature and thought."--Jacket.