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Informationen zum Autor Sondra Katherine Wilson, Ph.D. is a researcher at Harvard University's W. E. B. Du Bois Institute. She is the executor of the James Weldon Johnson estate and the editor of several volumes of his work. She is also the editor of the Modern Library's The Crisis Reader and The Opportunity Reader. She lives in New York City. Klappentext The Messenger was the third most popular magazine of the Harlem Renaissance after The Crisis and Opportunity . Unlike the other two magazines, 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 the cause of socialism to the black masses. They believed that a socialist society was the only one that would be free from racism. The socialist ideology of The Messenger "the only magazine of scientific radicalism in the world published by Negroes," was reflected in the pieces and authors published in its pages. The Messenger Reader contains poetry, stories, and essays from Paul Robeson, Zora Neale Hurston, Wallace Thurman, and Dorothy West. The Messenger Reader , will be a welcome addition to the critically acclaimed Modern Library Harlem Renaissance series.Introduction IF WE MUST DIE If we must die--let it not be like hogs Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot, While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs, Making their mock at our accursed lot If we must die, let us nobly die, So that our precious blood may not be shed In vain; then even the monsters we defy Shall be constrained to honor us though dead.* In his poem "If We Must Die," Claude McKay embodies the new spirit and new self-confidence that was flourishing among black intellectuals and writers shortly before the advent of the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s. This newfound intellectual and cultural freedom owed much to the eloquent editorials in The Messenger. Founded by A. Philip Randolph and Chandler Owen, the New York-based journal first appeared in 1917 for the express purpose of promoting a socialist movement. Born in Crescent City, Florida, Randolph moved to New York around 1906. After studying at the City College of New York, he became active in the socialist movement. While he was editor of The Messenger in 1921 he made an unsuccessful bid for the office of secretary of state in New York on the socialist ticket. During The Messenger's final years, he abandoned his militancy and devoted more of his efforts to organizing the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. Messenger cofounder Chandler Owen was born in Warrenton, North Carolina, in 1889. After graduating from Virginia Union University, he moved to New York, where he met A. Philip Randolph, and joined the Socialist Party in 1916. Randolph and Owen were the key figures of The Messenger's editorial team, and their inner circle included W A. Domingo, George S. Schuyler, Theophilus Lewis, William Colson, and J. A. Rogers. The Messenger was published sporadically during its early years because of meager funding, the First World War, and printers' strikes. It was not published on a consistent basis until 1921, and in 1928 the magazine folded permanently. During its eleven-year run, the journal boasted of being "the only magazine of scientific radicalism in the world published by Negroes." In this Introduction, I want to explain The Messenger's role in the evolution of the Harlem Renaissance. The magazine's poems, short stories, reviews, and essays presented here illustrate its function as an intellectual and cultural outlet for black artists. These writings resonate with the new type of black militancy The Messenger helped to produce. I hope to make evident how this spirit of rebellion helped to engender the Harlem Renaissance. Noted scholar David Levering Lewis wrote that "The Harlem Renaissance was a somewhat forced phenom...
