The Crisis was a very educated magazine that was used as a recruiting tool for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. This magazine has had an impact and was very popular and was mainly concentrated on African American history, politics, culture, social injustice, and their rights. The implications of “the New Negro “ is the Crisis Magazine on having a voice for African Americans to speak their truths and facts to educate other people. This magazine also tries to have a voice for African Americans to expand and increase their culture and to gain respect and to advocate for their rights. This can also help to open opportunities for their future. In the United States, African Americans were not acknowledged by the public and were not treated well. According to Donal Harris “However, in 1910 another kind of magazine, the African American monthly, specifically The Crisis, emerged with the conscious desire to reshape the style, size, and color of commercial periodicals as well as the implicit race of the people who read and wrote them.” (pg 62). This quote determines on how The Crisis Magazine had a representation for African Americans and can reshape people’s opinions on African Americans. These covers of the Crisis Magazine show the experience of how African Americans had issues with racial stereotypes and racial discrimination and try to correct the stereotypes. These covers were supposed to be the new representation of the New Black America. The purpose of these covers was to overcome the stereotypes of African Americans. These covers also show and determine on how it was moving, how they showed African American accomplishments, and how they influenced. According to Donal Harris “…The Crisis becomes quite clear here: first, it wants to aggregate information on African American achievements and circulate them to a national reading public so as to provide a counterhistory to racist mass culture..” (pg 69). This quote determines on how The Crisis Magazine wants to show information on African Americans’ achievements and accomplishments to educate people because other news articles were mentioning African American achievements due to racism. These covers of The Crisis Magazine are for readers in the world and African Americans as it helps them not only change the image of African Americans in the public eye. As well as help combat the narrative of the stereotypical and racism that was going on. The covers are for African American descents can use the cover of crisis as a visual representation of what their culture has achieved and accomplished over the years. This may survive as a guide to help pave the way against racism. Also, it’s for people who aren’t African American to gain knowledge and educate themselves about what African Americans have gone through and not pay attention to the racial stereotypes. The Crisis wasn’t just a news magazine it was a step towards equality and recognition of black achievements.
This cover spoke and drew my attention because it shows and represents African American achievements and accomplishments on how they showed the world that they can do the impossible and chase their dreams even based on what they have been through. For example in this cover, it is John B. Taylor from the University of Pennsylvania. John was the very first African American to get picked and to be representing the United States worldwide for any type of sport. John is also the very first African American to win a gold Olympic medal. Still, to this day the team that has received the trophy in the Outdoor Heptagonal Championships was named in the honor of John B Taylor. John B Taylor was an inspiring person to African Americans and also to myself which he showed that you could go after what you want and do the impossible.
How do you think people felt about John B. Taylor, the first African-American to be competing at the highest level of Track and Field at the Olympics?
Work cited
HARRIS, DONALD. On Company Time: American Modernism in the Big Magazines. COLUMBIA UNIV Press, 2016.
Modernist journals: Crisis. Modernist Journals | Crisis. (n.d.). Retrieved May 10, 2022, from https://modjourn.org/journal/crisis/
Modernist journals: Crisis. A record of the darker races. vol. 2, no. 3. Modernist Journals | Crisis. A Record of the Darker Races. Vol. 2, No. 3. (n.d.). Retrieved May 10, 2022, from https://modjourn.org/issue/bdr522217/
Credits Greg Johnson Writer , et al. “First African American Olympic Gold Medalist Was a Penn Grad.” Penn Today, Greg Johnson, 28 July 2021, https://penntoday.upenn.edu/news/first-african-american-olympic-gold-medalist-was-penn-grad.
