The Messenger: The Only Radical Negro Magazine in America. July, 1919.
New York: The Messenger Publishing Co., Inc., 1919.
Vol. II No. 7. 34 pp. Stapled wraps. 8.75" x 12". About Very Good with light wear, vertical crease throughout entire issue, stamp of "H. Talbert Room" in Portland, Oregon on front wrap. Billed as "The only Magazine of Scientific Radicalism in the World Published by Negroes...its interpretations are made calmly and dispassionately - without prejudice in favor of the Negro or against the White Man." The magazine was issued from 1917 to 1928 and played a large part in the Harlem Renaissance. It originally had socialist leanings and covered various topics such as political commentary, literary criticism, and biographies of active radicals of the period. This issue covered "Why Negroes Should Join the I.W.W. " (the anarchist union International Workers of the World or "Wobblies"), "Propaganda Among Negro Soldiers," "The Crisis of the Crisis," "Rent Profiteering," "The Negro in Politics," "Jewish Pogroms," and "Independence for India." The editor, A. Philip Randolph, would go onto lead the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the first successful African American-led union. Rare.
Price: $2,000.00