The Crisis
Alice Dunbar Nelson Papers (MSS 0113)
The Crisis was established by W. E. B. Dubois in 1910 as the official publication of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). The Crisis was published monthly until becoming a quarterly publication in the early 2000s. Dubois served as editor for 24 years, stepping down in 1934.
The Crisis was one of the major magazines of the Harlem Renaissance. Jessie Redmon Fauset served as literary editor from 1919-1926 publishing the works of prominent Black authors such as Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, Claude McKay, and Jean Toomer. She was a writer herself and before becoming literary editor, published articles in The Crisis.
There are two copies here on display — August 1919 and January 1932. The 1932 issue of The Crisis was five cents more than the 1919 issue. The 1919 issue cost ten cents whereas the price in 1932 was fifteen cents. Both issues were published during the time of Dubois’s tenure as editor.
August, 1919 (Vol 18 No 4/ Whole no. 106)
![Dubois, W.E.B. The Crisis, [August 1919], from the Alice Dunbar Nelson Papers collection](https://exhibitions.lib.udel.edu/black-expression-in-black-and-white/wp-content/uploads/sites/284/2024/03/11_web-dubois_crisis_1919-scaled.jpg "Dubois, W.E.B. The Crisis, [August 1919], from the Alice Dunbar Nelson Papers collection")
August 1919 featured poems from C. Bertram Johnson, Georgia D. Johnson, and a sonnet from Alice Dunbar Nelson. “The Crisis Advertiser” featured advertisements from various universities such as Wilberforce University, Atlanta University, Morehouse College, Biddle University, and more. There is also an advertisement announcing the publication of The Brownie’s Book, a monthly magazine for children, November 1919.
January, 1932 (Vol 41 No 1/ Whole no. 255)
![Dubois, W.E.B. The Crisis, [January 1932], from the Alice Dunbar Nelson Papers collection](https://exhibitions.lib.udel.edu/black-expression-in-black-and-white/wp-content/uploads/sites/284/2024/03/19_web-dubois_crisis_1932-scaled.jpg "Dubois, W.E.B. The Crisis, [January 1932], from the Alice Dunbar Nelson Papers collection")
January 1932 features The Crisis School Directory and a host of articles and stories. Some of the writers include Alice Dunbar Nelson, George S. Schuyler, and W. Napoleon Rivers, Jr. The frontispiece is The Aaron Douglas Fresco of Harriet Tubman. Aaron Douglas was one of the most accomplished and influential visual artists of the Harlem Renaissance.
