Black Political Thought and Wartime Civil Rights Discourse Negro Digest with Contributions from Langston Hughes, Paul Robeson, W.E.B. Du Bois... Archive 1943-1945

Langston Hughes Robeson Du Bois

Archive

[Civil Rights] [Black Periodical] Johnson, John H. Negro Digest, 1943–1945, documents the emergence of a nationally circulated forum for African American political thought, cultural criticism, and civil rights debate during the Jim Crow era and World War II. Established in 1942, the magazine created a widely accessible platform for Black writers, intellectuals, and public figures to address the contradictions between American democratic ideals and racial segregation at home while the United States fought fascism abroad. The issues gathered here feature contributions from prominent figures including Eslanda Goode Robeson, Langston Hughes, W.E.B. Du Bois, Carey McWilliams, and Gunnar Myrdal, alongside regular “Round Table” discussions in which scholars, journalists, and political commentators debated central questions concerning race, democracy, war, labor, and civil rights.

Negro Digest. Chicago: Johnson Publishing Company, 1943–1945. Archive of seven issues published between June 1943 and January 1945. Staple bound digest format periodicals with printed wrappers measuring approximately 7.5 × 5.5 inches. Founded by John H. Johnson and modeled structurally on Reader’s Digest, the magazine centered African American voices and perspectives while presenting essays, journalism, and commentary on politics, culture, and global affairs affecting the Black diaspora. Sold for twenty five cents and distributed nationally, Negro Digest became one of the earliest widely circulated mass market magazines written primarily for Black readers and later served as a precursor to Johnson Publishing’s influential magazines Ebony and Jet. Contributors during this period include African American writers and scholars as well as white liberal and international commentators such as Eleanor Roosevelt, Dalton Trumbo, and James Boyd, reflecting the broad intellectual debates surrounding race, democracy, and wartime politics.

The archive includes seven wartime issues containing the publication’s recurring “Round Table” discussions and a wide range of essays addressing segregation, wartime labor, global anti fascist struggle, and the future of racial equality in the United States and abroad. Contents include:

[1] Negro Digest. June 1943. Round Table: “Will Mammy Be Missed?” with contributions from The Field Afar and Edward F. Murphy. Additional articles include “Boogie Woogie Ballad,” “No Color Line in Puerto Rico” by Carey McWilliams, and “The South’s Other Side” by Zora Neale Hurston.

[2] Negro Digest. August 1943. Round Table: “What Strategy for Negroes: Patience or Pressure?” with James Boyd and Horace Cayton. Articles include “No. 1 Jap Killer,” “The Deep South Looks Ahead,” “The Inside Story of Liberia,” “Why Race Riots?” by Frank Hughes, “Black Commandos,” “Origin of the Zoot Suit,” and “Africa at the Peace Table” by W.E.B. Du Bois.

[3] Negro Digest. September 1943. Round Table: “Is Syphilis Primarily a Race Problem?” with W.G. Smillie, Elmer Carter, and Albert Deutsch. Articles include “Georgia Primer” by Lillian E. Smith, “Black Brazil” by Harold Preece, “Charleston Folk Tales” by John Bennett, “Jim Crow For Export” by Joseph Dynan, and “The Four Equalities” by Eleanor Roosevelt.

[4] Negro Digest. February 1944. Round Table: “Is the Negro Problem Primarily a Southern Problem?” with John Temple Graves, Francis Biddle, and J. Saunders Redding. Articles include “For Germans Only,” “White Folks Do the Funniest Things” by Langston Hughes, “Return of the Natives” from Americas and The Nation, “Brown Soldiers on Horseback” from New York Herald Tribune, and “America’s Greatest Social Problem” by Turner Catledge.

[5] Negro Digest. March 1944. Round Table: “Is Segregation the Solution to the Race Problem?” with Representative John Rankin and Carey McWilliams. Articles include “Last Dance at the Canteen” by Reverend Adam Clayton Powell, “Black Notes on White Music” by Howard Taubman, “My Most Humiliating Jim Crow Experience” by George Schuyler, “Native Son” by Edwin R. Embree, “Last Chance for the White World” by Arthur Ingram Hayman, and “An American Dilemma” by Gunnar Myrdal.

[6] Negro Digest. December 1944. Round Table: “Have Communists Quit Fighting for Negro Rights?” with George Schuyler, William L. Patterson, Benjamin A. Davis Jr., and Horace R. Cayton. Articles include “The Man Who Resurrected Toussaint” by Richard Durham, “Monument to Humility” by Dale Carnegie, “A Bedroom Approach to Racism,” “My Most Humiliating Jim Crow Experience” by J. Saunders Redding, and “Unlocking the Negro’s Past” by Arna Bontemps.

[7] Negro Digest. January 1945. Round Table: “Are All Men Created Equal?” with W.T. Couch and Melville Herskovits. Articles include “Brown Death Takes No Holiday” by Ted LeBerthon, “The Color of U.S. Foreign Policy” by Carey McWilliams, “Equals But Not Under the Law” by Osmond K. Fraenkel, and “Color Fades Into Puerto Rico” by Marjorie Ruth Clark.

Covers show moderate toning and edge wear, particularly to the January 1945 issue. Occasional dog eared pages and creasing present, though pages and bindings remain clean and stable overall. Overall good condition. The group preserves a concentrated wartime run of a formative African American intellectual magazine documenting debates over race, democracy, and global politics during the final years of World War II.

Item #22386

Price: $1,200.00