The Messenger

1917 – 1928

Statement of the Editors of "The Messenger" at the time of its first publication:

“THE MESSENGER IS THE ONLY MAGAZINE OF SCIENTIFIC RADICALISM IN THE WORLD PUBLISHED BY NEGROES

It is written in fine style; its matter is logically presented; its interpretations are made calmly and dispassionately – without prejudice in favor of the Negro or against the White Man.

Our aim is to appeal to reason, to lift our pens above the cringing demagogy of the times and above the cheap, peanut politics of the old, reactionary Negro leaders.

Patriotism has no appeal to us; justice has. Party has no weight with us; principle does. Loyalty is meaningless; it depends on what one is loyal to. Prayer is not one of our remedies; it depends on what one is praying for. We consider prayer as nothing more than a fervent wish; consequently the merit and worth of a prayer depend upon what the fervent wish is. Still we never forget that all wishes, desires, hopes – must be realized thru the adoption of sound methods. This requires scientific educations – a knowledge of the means by which the end aimed at may be attained.

Test us on any question. Write us letters for comment. Suggest subjects you desire to have us discuss. THE MESSENGER will take a courageous and sound position without regard to race, creed, color, sex or political party.

(Signed) THE EDITORS”

Introduction to the digital archive of The Messenger
[Now extensively upgraded as of mid November 2021]

[Also of interest: The Crusader, the other important black American communist periodical in this period.]

A. Phillip Randolph and Chandler Owen founded The Messenger in 1917, after joining the Socialist Party of America. They wished to provide the African American community of the time with a radical left perspective and discussion forum. Their perspective differed from that of W.E.B. DuBois and Booker T. Washington, whom they saw as part of the older generation. The Messenger opposed World War I, and with it wartime conscription of African Americans. It supported armed self defense against lynching. It considered labor exploitation to be central to racism. It supported the Bolshevik Revolution, When in June of 1919 the left wing of the Socialist Party was expelled/left the SP to become eventually the Communist Party USA, The Messenger remained loyal to the Socialist Party.

Randolf and Owen called themselves the "New Crowd Negroes".

The US Justice Department of the time claimed The Messenger to be "the most most able and the most dangerous publications of its time."

Over time, the focus and character of the publication shifted. Randolph and Owen after 1920 began to back off from advancing socialism, and moved more toward union news and artistic commentary.

In 1923 Owen left the publication, and Theophilis Lewis took over editing control. By the time of the January 1924 issue, The Messenger had lost virtually all of its radical content, acquiring a liberal, reformist perspective, for the most part. It increasingly celebrated black capitalism. It also became in part an arts and literature magazine. As such, it played a significant role in the Harlem Renaissance.

The Messenger ... especially in its 1926 issues... was heavily involved in covering and promoting the efforts by the Brotherhood of Pullman Porters to organize and get recognized as a union Every 1926 issue carried both full page cartoons and several articles relating to this struggle. This struggle ... which began in 1925 and resulted in the Brotherhood of Pullman Workers finally becoming officially recognized as the voice of the Pullman Workers in 1937, was led by A. Phillip Randolph, founder and editor of The Messenger

This digital archive, since a major upgrade of it finished in mid November of 2021, includes in the years 1921, 1922, 1926, 1927, and 1928 images from the 1969 Negro Universities Press reprint of The Messenger, every page scanned by the Riazanov Library digital archive project. In the years 1917-1920, and for 1923, 1924, and 1925 we used scans made by Google for Hathi Trust, purging these of their ugly watermarks, but more significantly restoring dozens of pages that Google and Hathi Trust just failed to scan to the 1923, 1924, and 1925 issues, which I scanned from the same physical reprint volume (in the collection of U C Berkeley) that Google scanned. Additionally, I re-scanned from that reprint and provide here much higher resolution, restored images of graphic art than that found in the Google / Hathi Trust presentation of The Messenger, especially including covers, and cartoons. Specifically, where Google scanned graphic art at 300 dpi, I scanned it at 600 or at 1200 dpi. Also, where in the reprint a graphic image spanning two facing pages was separated by a gap and the gutter of the reprint book, I restored the image to being a single continuous page, as the artist originally drew it. Google / Hathi Trust presented such material as two separate pages, and for which they also often left out or presented as distorted by the curves of the gutter of the book some of the material in the middle of the artwork. There are a few instances where I applied digital restoration to remove scratches and creases in photographs appearing in the reprint, in some of the cover photos.

This presentation is essentially a complete presentation of The Messenger from its first to last issue, flawed only by the fact that in the reprint some issues were missing their back cover page. And by the fact I found one issue of The Messenger in the U C Berkeley reprint vandalized by having had one physical page in the middle torn out.

The Messenger

1917 – 1928

Information on the unusual volume and issue numbers of The Messenger

A series of collections of cartoons for various issues of The Messenger: “Aframerican” Snapshots 1927 “Christianity and the Negros” 1927 Madam C.J.Walker advertisements & article Compendium of all Pullman Strike Cartoons 1925-1927 restored stitched art

1917

1918

1919

1920

1921

1922

At this point numbering of issues... by volume and issue number... becomes rational, so we will include such in the listings.

1923

1924

1925

1926

1927

1928

A series of collections of cartoons for various issues of The Messenger:
“Aframerican” Snapshots 1927

“Christianity and the Negros” 1927

Madam C.J.Walker advertisements & article

Compendium of all Pullman Strike Cartoons 1925-1927

restored stitched art