What was the name of the magazine published by the naacp?

Dear NAACP member,

Thank you for your continued commitment to social justice and civil rights.

In 2020, we celebrated the 110th Anniversary of The Crisis magazine. When W.E.B. Du Bois created The Crisis in 1910, he noted that it would be “a record of the darker races” and it became the official publication of the NAACP.

We know that The Crisis is a benefit of your NAACP membership and was recently made aware that some members did not receive the digital editions of The Crisis magazine that were produced in 2020. We apologize for this oversight.

We published four issues of The Crisis in 2020 — one hard copy and three digital issues. After 110 years, we continue to be “a record of the darker races.” The Crisis digital issues are packed with stories that document the journey and experience of African Americans during a year of social unrest, a pandemic, and the election of Kamala Harris as the nation’s first African American, first South Asian, and first woman Vice President of the United States.

Please check out the links to the digital issues below.

If you are interested in receiving hard copies of the digital issues, please send your contact information (name and mailing address) to membership () or Ms. India Artis (). We will mail you hard copies of the last three issues that were published in 2020.

Thank you again for your membership in the NAACP. Together we will continue to fight for a society in which all persons have equal rights.

The Crisis Digital Issues

By Uella Rodriguez

Tufts Digital Collections and Archives is excited to announce the availability of a new collection of The Crisis Magazine. The collection was donated in September of 2018 and includes a large selection of issues from The Crisis Magazine, dating from December 1929 to May/June 2002. The Crisis is a publication focused on African American civil rights, history, politics, and culture, and whose mission has been to pursue "the world-old dream of human brotherhood" by bearing witness to "the danger of race prejudice" and reporting on "the great problem of inter-racial relations."[1]

The Crisis was founded in 1910 by W.E.B. Du Bois as the official publication of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) one year after the organization’s founding. The magazine was able to amass national appeal, establishing a monthly circulation of 100,000 copies by 1919. With its newfound success and popularity, the magazine set itself up as arguably the most widely read and influential periodical about race and social injustice in U.S. history.[2] As a platform for the NAACP’s views and agenda, the magazine acted as a corrective force in the publishing field when it came to African American representation in the media. Therefore, much of the published content depicts both uplifting accounts of achievements by African Americans and uncensored reports of racial discrimination and violence. The early 1920s marked the pinnacle of popularity for The Crisis, and they covered almost every part of life for African Americans, addressing such topics as women's suffrage, education, children, labor, homes, vacations, and the war.[3] The magazine’s advertisements are just as interesting, as they promoted opportunities for education, real estate, and jobs for the African American community.[4] The Crisis took a prominent role in advocating African Americans in the arts as well. With the help of The Crisis’ literary editor Jessie Redmon Fauset, whose influence became the driving force behind the magazine’s success, The Crisis supported writers of the Harlem Renaissance and facilitated the starts of several black authors’ careers, including Arna Bontemps, Langston Hughes, Georgia Douglas Johnson, and Countee Cullen, just to name a few.[5] The Crisis remained a publishing force in the African American community for the rest of the century, and as of 2019 continues to publish. Our collection includes 359 issues of The Crisis that contain numerous editorials pertaining to the African American experience, ranging chronologically from the Great Depression all the way to the beginning of the 21st century. Notable issues in the collection include pieces about African American soldiers in World War II, and extensive coverage of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. The collection also contains other fascinating materials from the NAACP such as the NAACP Criminal Justice Manual, Annual Conference materials, documents from the Daughters of the Eastern Star, and more.

For more information about this collection, please see the finding aid. If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact us at  or 617-627-3737.

[1] Benjamin L. Hooks, “Publisher’s Foreward,” The Crisis 92, no. 10 (1985): 6; Brown University and The University of Tulsa. "The Crisis: A Record of the Darker Races,” The Modernist Journals Project: "Modernism Began in the Magazines". //www.modjourn.org/render.php?view=mjp_object&id=crisiscollection. [2]Brown University and The University of Tulsa. "The Crisis: A Record of the Darker Races,” The Modernist Journals Project: "Modernism Began in the Magazines". //www.modjourn.org/render.php?view=mjp_object&id=crisiscollection. [3]Ibid. [4] “The Crisis - NAACP Magazine (1910 - 1923),” Paperless Archives, //www.paperlessarchives.com/the_crisis.html [5]  Encyclopedia Britannica. "The Crisis: American Magazine." //www.britannica.com/topic/The-Crisis-American-magazine.

Tue, 11.01.1910

*On this date in 1910, The Crisis magazine was published. This is the official magazine of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

It was founded in 1910 by W. E. B. Du Bois (editor), Oswald Garrison Villard, J. Max Barber, Charles Edward Russell, Kelly Miller, William Stanley Braithwaite, and Mary Dunlop Maclean. The Crisis has been in continuous print since 1910, and it is the oldest black oriented magazine in the world.  Today, The Crisis is "a quarterly journal of civil rights, history, politics and culture and seeks to educate and challenge its readers about issues that continue to plague African Americans and other communities of color."   The original title of the magazine was the CRISIS: A Record of The Darker Races. The magazine's name was inspired by James Russell Lowell's 1844 poem, The Present Crisis. The suggestion to name the magazine after the poem came from one of the NAACP co-founder’s white activist Mary White Ovington.  

The NAACP was largely recognized as a grassroots foundation, as it relied on the surrounding community to sell subscriptions to the magazine, The Crisis. In its first year, the journal had a monthly circulation of 1,000. By 1918, it had more than 100,000 readers. It also grew from 20 pages and rising to as many as 68 pages; and in price, from 10 cents per issue and later increasing to 15 cents. The Crisis would go on to become incredibly influential during the 1910s and 1920s and would take a large role in the Harlem Renaissance literature movement.  

In the 21st century, The Crisis largely operates online via social media outlets on Facebook, Instagram, and through their website. The website of The Crisis focuses on current injustices and shares articles from other news outlets. Although the mediums and topics of The Crisis have shifted since its beginning, it still produces articles that attempt to raise awareness of intersectional social justice issues. The Crisis now is largely dedicated to their statement of principles that lists:

• "To battle tirelessly for the rights of humanity and the highest ideals of democracy
• To tell the world the facts. To expose injustice and propose solutions
• To speak for ourselves
• To speak the truth to power
• To serve as a trustworthy record of the darker race
• To serve as a reliable antidote to ignorance
• To shape and strengthen our collective consciousness
• To serve humbly and forthrightly as memory and conscience, as spirit and heart".

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