ft j3?3xl3.5 Jr V Propaganda and Aesthetics The Literary Politics of Afro-American Magazines in the Twentieth Century Abby Arthur Johnson & Ronald Maberry Johnson The University of Massachusetts Press Amherst, 1979 Copyright © 1979 by The University of Massachusetts Press All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America Designed by Mary Mendell Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 78-19692 isbn 0-87023-269-x Grateful acknowledgment is extended to the following for permission to reprint copyrighted material: North Dakota Quarterly, for material from Abby Arthur Johnson and Ronald Maberry Johnson, ^'Reform and Reaction: Black Literary Magazines in the 1930s," in North Dakota Quarterly 46 (Winter 1978), 5-18. Journal of American Studies, for material from Abby Arthur Johnson and Ronald Maberry Johnson, "Forgotten Pages: Black Literary Magazines of the 1920s," in Journal of American Studies 8 (December 1974), 363-82. The Sterling Lord Agency, Inc., for material from LeRoi Jones, "Black Art," in Black Magic Poetry, published by Bobbs-Merrill, copyright © 1969 by LeRoi Jones. Reprinted by permission of The Sterling Lord Agency, Inc. The Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History, Inc., for ma¬ terial from Abby Arthur Johnson and Ronald Maberry Johnson, "Away from Accommodation: Radical Editors and Protest Journalism, 1900-1910," in Journal of Negro History 62, no. 4 (1977). Grateful acknowledgment for permission to publish is also extended to: Dorothy West, for quotations from her correspondence; Mrs. James Weldon Johnson, for the letters exchanged between Claude McKay, Dorothy West, and James Weldon Johnson; The James Weldon Johnson Memorial Collection, for the letters of James Weldon Johnson; The Estate of Claude McKay, for the correspondence of Claude McKay; Hope McKay Virtue, for her kind permission to publish previ¬ ously unpublished correspondence; Mrs. Frederick Douglass III, for the letters of Booker T. Washington. Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Johnson, Abby Arthur. Propaganda and aesthetics. Bibliography: p. Includes index. 1. American literature—Afro-American authors—Periodicals—History. 2. Afro- American periodicals—History. 3. American literature—20th century—History and criticism. 4. Afro-Americans—Race identity. 5. Little magazines—United States. 1. Johnson, Ronald Maberry, joint author. 11. Title. PS153.N5J6 810'.8'0052 78-19692 ISBN 0-87023-269-X Contents Preface v Chapter One. Away from Accommodation 1 Colored American Magazine, Voice of the Negro, and Horizon, 1900-1910 Chapter Two. Toward the Renaissance 31 Crisis, Opportunity, and Messenger, 1910-1928 Chapter Three. Black Renaissance 65 Little Magazines and Special Issues, 1916-1930 Chapter Four. Renaissance to Reformation 97 House Organs, Annual Reviews, and Little Magazines, 1930-1940 Chapter Five. Aesthetics of Integration 125 Negro Quarterly, Negro Story, Phylon, and Harlem Quarterly, 1940-1960 Chapter Six. Black Aesthetic 161 Revolutionary Little Magazines, 1960-1976 Epilogue: More than Mere Magazines 201 Notes 207 Selected Bibliography 233 Index 239 i / To our parents «t s > f* ^ ~ r T , t *o^ • i ■ I' r 1. t / ' il i ' Preface The literary materials in Afro-American magazines of the twentieth century weave into a rich narrative. The journals provide insight, not available in a comparable manner elsewhere, into the evolution of Afro-American literature. They trace the contributions made by major figures, including W. E. B. Du Bois, Langston Hughes, Charles S. Johnson, Alain Locke, and Richard Wright, among several others. They record the discussions over art and propaganda which have been long prominent in black literature. Decade by decade, black artists and intellectuals have debated the function of Afro-American litera¬ ture: should it serve the aesthetic tastes of the individual writer, or should it advance the interests of Afro-Americans as a group. Some writers favored art-for-art's sake, or approximations of that emphasis; others articulated the need for art-for-people's sake, as they termed it. Little work has been done on individual Afro-American periodicals and nothing, up to this point, has been published on twentieth-century black journals as a group. Studies of magazines in general are rela¬ tively rare, with only The Little Magazine, by Frederick Hoffman, Charles Allen, and Carolyn P. Ulrich, attempting a survey of small journals in this century. With the exception of Afro-American pub¬ lications, the book provides valuable insight into numerous journals predating 1946, when the volume was published. It includes a brief note on Fire and Challenge, but excludes reference altogether to many other notable black small journals, such as Black Opals, Harlem, Saturday Evening Quill, and Stylus. We have attempted, with our study, to fill a considerable gap in literary history by detailing the development of Afro-American magazines in this century. Preface We limited our study to journals generally owned, managed, and read by Afro-Americans. Some publications tried to be exclusively black, as were those of the 1960s and early 1970s. Others allowed white participation to a greater or lesser extent, as did Voice of the Negro, Crisis, Opportunity, Negro Story, and Phylon. All of the jour¬ nals, whether involving whites or not, focused primarily on Afro- American concerns, including the proper direction for an evolving black literature. We could not examine each Afro-American magazine, since there have been so many. Instead, we focused on the publica¬ tions most significant to the course of black literature. These publications include large cultural and political journals as well as little literary magazines. In the former category are Colored American Magazine, Voice of the Negro, and especially Crisis and Opportunity, which served important literary purposes. The black little magazines were more numerous, appearing originally in embry¬ onic form in the first decade of the century. The magazines were designated little not because of publication size or contents but be¬ cause of a limited readership, usually numbering below 1,000 for each journal. The audience was small since the publications were so con¬ troversial, both in the subjects and styles of the material included. The poems and stories frequently highlighted characters—prostitutes, gamblers, and con men—and language—obscenities and slang terms like ^"nigger" and "^cracker"—which offended the bourgeoisie on both sides of the color line. As controversial publications, the little maga¬ zines could not, as a rule, attract well-heeled benefactors or adver¬ tisers, who usually were conservative in their tastes and gifts. As a result, many of the small journals died with pride in their beginnings, some after only one issue, such as Fire and Harlem, others after a valiant struggle sustained over three or four years, such as Challenge and Negro Story. This book follows a chronological plan, with each chapter focusing on a significant period in Afro-American history and letters. Chapter one discusses magazines and literature in the first decade of the cen¬ tury, in relation to the Booker T. Washington-W. E. B. Du Bois con¬ troversy. Chapters two and three trace the careers of the large journals and the little magazines as they prepared for and contributed to the black renaissance of the 1920s. Chapter four examines publications of the 1930s, in their response to the Depression and contemporary emphases on proletarian literature; and chapter five considers the im¬ pact of World War II on the journals of the 1940s and 1950s, as they developed a literary aesthetic based on integration. Chapter six views the revolutionary little magazines of the 1960s and early 1970s in Preface ^ their attempts to reject western culture and to establish a viable black aesthetic. This book originated five years ago, when Professor Arthur P. Davis of Howard University suggested that we look at Pire and Harlem, copies of which are located in the Moorland-Spingarn Re¬ search Center at the university. After reading the journals, along with other black magazines prominent in the 1920s, we saw the basis for an article which could best be done in collaboration. The joint involve¬ ment proved a successful blending of our scholarly backgrounds and interests and led to plans for a larger study. In the larger effort, Ron provided insights as an American social and cultural historian and Abby as a literary historian, with a specialty in little magazines. Abby drafted the manuscript, drawing on our joint research, several position papers, and innumerable and often interminable discussions. At the beginning of the study, neither of us thought that an adequate presentation of the material could be done without the considerable help of the other. We feel the same way now. Throughout our labors, we have shared some memorable experiences: the discovery of lively magazines and charismatic individuals, the unexpected locating of re¬ vealing correspondence, the unfolding of a dramatic story. We remain grateful to numerous persons. We are, of course, espe¬ cially thankful for the advice and support that Professor Davis has given us. The staff of the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center proved most helpful, particularly Michael R. Winston, Director, in giving us access to the material; Denise D. Gletten, Senior Manuscript Librarian and Esme Bhan, Manuscript Research Associate, in assisting our use of archival collections; and Cornelia Stokes, Coordinator of Reader Services, in gathering the large