The Messenger (magazine)

For the Mormon publication, see Messenger (magazine).
For the astronomy publication, see The Messenger (astronomy magazine).
The Messenger
Cover of the July 1918 issue
FrequencyMonthly
First issue1917
Final issue1928
CountryUnited States
Based inNew York City
LanguageEnglish

The Messenger was an early 20th-century political and literary magazine by and for African-American people in the United States. It was important to the flowering of the Harlem Renaissance and initially promoted a socialist political view. The Messenger was co-founded in New York City by Chandler Owen and A. Philip Randolph in August 1917.

After 1920, The Messenger featured more articles about black culture and began to publish rising black writers. It became a kind of literary magazine (like The Little Review, the revived The Dial, and The Liberator), contributing to the Harlem Renaissance. It was notable for helping strengthen African-American intellectual and political identity in the age of Jim Crow.[1] Through the 1920s it also noted the success of blacks who were reaching the middle class in business and the professions, publishing a series of essays known as "These 'Colored' United States", submitted by writers across the country.[2]

  1. ^ Adam McKible, The Space and Place of Modernism: The Little Magazine in New York, New York: Routledge, 2002. ISBN 0-415-93980-1
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference messengerbus was invoked but never defined (see the help page).