The January 1920 cover of The Crisis, featuring a a photograph of a black woman in a head wrap smiling, clearly stands out among the magazine’s cover images. Though many of the magazine’s covers feature women, only a small number of them are photographs rather than illustrations, and an even smaller number feature the woman looking directly at the camera and smiling. The image is also unique for what the woman is wearing, a patterned head scarf and top. It is a departure from the typical formal, euro-centric style of dress many of the magazine’s cover stars wear.

As discussed in “Printing the Color Line in The Crisis” by Donal Harris, the image, dubbed “Woman of Santa Lucia” was controversial in its time, with many readers of the magazine fearing it represented a racist, or for some reason inappropriate caricature. Harris writes, “Like every photograph reproduced in The Crisis, the image was intended as a correction to racist caricatures of “‘grinning’ Negroes, ‘happy’ Negroes, ‘gold dust twins,’ ‘Aunt Jemimas,’ [and] ‘solid’ headed tacks.”” but ironically, it was seen as the opposite. The image feels significant to me not just for its visual intrigue but also for the context behind it. It is not simply a portrait of a black woman smiling. It stands out among other Crisis covers. Its subject is a Caribbean woman, shifting the magazine’s focus from African American identity to a more global idea of blackness. But despite its foreignness, the image, to me, still feels friendly and harmless, so why did so many readers of the crisis disapprove of it?

It may be, as DuBois stated in an article written in response to the backlash, titled “In Black”, that the image was “too Black”. “Our photograph of a woman of Santa Lucia, with its strength and humor and fine swing of head, was laughed at by many. Why? “O—er—it was not because they were black,” stammer some of my office companions, “but they are too black. No people were ever so——” writes DuBois. Note that criticism of the cover also came from The Crisis’ own staff, meaning it may have been a personal choice by DuBois, strengthening the intentionality of the image as a statement. But what does “too Black” mean? Is it that her skin is literally too dark, or that her demeanor and aesthetics do not properly cater to the white gaze? It is a little of both. In “In Black” DuBois defends the woman’s presentation while also addressing the issues that arise when photographing dark skin.  DuBois understood the complexity of the backlash. The readers and editors of The Crisis were upset partly for what the photo may represent aesthetically, but also because of its failure to properly capture dark skin.

Though DuBois strongly defended the image, no other quite like it appeared on future covers of The Crisis. The magazine may have even gone as far as to “correct” the Woman of Santa Lucia with the July 1920 cover of the magazine, featuring a photo of a young black woman in a cap and gown, also smirking at the camera. Considering that the second cover comes just months after the controversial first, it appears the image was chosen in response to the first. The woman in the cap and gown is demure and anglicized, representing a bright future for the black race. While the woman of Santa Lucia, kind as she appears to be, may represent the past.