The New negro which was a term made up by Alain Locke was movement in which black americans were building a new image of the negro in America. After looking at the several Crises magazine covers and reading the first set of readings it made me realize that the this movement was essential in building the image of the New Negro. One could say that this was the intention of the founder of The Crisis magazine. One of the notable founders was W.E.B Dubois an essential figure of not only the civil rights movement but as well as the the movements that followed such as the New negro movement during the Harlem renaissance. Dubois filled in as a major editor for the magazine and one could say that there are remnants of his famous essay The souls of black folk. As many periodicals and magazines many failed but Du Bois’ goal was not that of failure, popular magazines during this time were of predominantly white founders and editors. Du Bois wanted a magazine solely made for the black people of America he wanted to create an image similar to those of Mclures and Ladies Home Journal were the ‘white’ magazines that were popular in the media. This is mentioned in the book Printing the Color Line in The Crisis by Donal Harris where they speak on how Du Bois wanted his magazine to look like and how it could reach a wide range of people “Our covers and our publishers talk may sometimes savor the ‘penny-dreadful,’ ” he wrote, but“the methods that have built up McCLURE’S and the LADIES HOME JOURNAL cannot be altogether ignored by The CRISIS.”(76) The author of this selected book explains “This aesthetic dimension is what hamstrung previous black periodicals, in his opinion, and Du Bois believed that they would need to invest in new printing equipment if they were going to sell more copies to a wider range of readers.” (76)This explains what Du Bois thought The Crisis would embody. Looking at several past Crisis magazines one thing I noticed was that  black colleges and universities were a big thing in these magazines. This is something I believe Du Bois wanted in his magazine to spread knowledge of different colleges and universities that young black men and women in America can go to. I should mention that this idea of education as an important part of the magazine is is reminiscent of Du Bois part VI of The Souls of Black Folk which is titled “Of the Training of Black Men”  which speaks heavily on how education is important for young black men and that black colleges and

universities are great places for black men to have a great career. The Crisis magazine as labeled is a “Record of the Darker Races” and this is essential in creating the image of the New Negro Movement.

Works Cited:

Printing the Color Line in The Crisis by Donal Harris