African American Poetry: A Digital Anthology

Poems Published in "Opportunity: A Journal of Negro Life," 1923-1926

Opportunity: A Journal of Negro Life was active in its first instance between 1923-1941. It was published by the National Urban League, under the editorship initially of Charles S. Johnson. 

Opportunity was most influential in African American literary circles for its literary contests, which ran between 1924-1927, and helped to strengthen the reputations of important writers like Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Sterling Brown, Arna Bontemps, and Countee Cullen. The contests were also accompanied by award dinners, which were often quite glamorous, and featured many writers, publishers, and patrons. 

In 1928, Charles Johnson was appointed as President of Fisk University, a Historically Black university. At that time, the editorship shifted, as did the priorities of the journal. After 1928, the magazine was more narrowly focused on sociology and race, and the literary emphasis diminished. 

 

This page has paths:

  1. African American Poetry: A Story Of Magazines Amardeep Singh
  2. Welcome: African American Poetry--a Digital Anthology Amardeep Singh

Contents of this tag:

  1. Langston Hughes, "The Weary Blues" (1925)
  2. Langston Hughes, "To Midnight Nan at Leroy's" (1926)
  3. Langston Hughes, "Our Land: Poem for a Decorative Panel " (1923)
  4. Langston Hughes, "The White Ones" (1924)
  5. Angelina W. Grimke, "Little Grey Dreams" (1924)
  6. Gwendolyn B. Bennett, "To Usward" (1924)
  7. Angelina W. Grimke, "I Weep" (1924)
  8. Angelina W. Grimke, "Dusk" (1924)
  9. Countee Cullen, "Brown Boy to Brown Girl (Remembrance on a hill) (For Yolanda)" (1924)
  10. Countee Cullen, "A Song of Praise (For one who praised his lady's being fair)" (1924)
  11. Esther Popel, "Credo" (1925)
  12. Arna Bontemps, "Golgotha Is a Mountain" (1926)
  13. Helene Johnson, "Metamorphism" (1926)
  14. Helene Johnson, "The Road" (1926)
  15. Countee Cullen, "From Life to Love" (1925)
  16. Arna Bontemps, "Here Is the Sea" (1926)
  17. Helene Johnson, "Night" (1926)
  18. Helene Johnson, "Magalu" (1926)
  19. Gwendolyn B. Bennett, "Purgation" (1925)
  20. Arna Bontemps, "Homing" (1926)
  21. Helene Johnson, "Trees at Night" (1925)
  22. Helene Johnson, "Futility" (1926)
  23. Langston Hughes, "Troubled Women" (1925)
  24. Arna Bontemps, "The Day-Breakers" (1926)
  25. Angelina W. Grimke, "The Black Finger" (1923)
  26. William H.A. Moore, "Sonnet" (1925)
  27. Arna Bontemps, "The Shattering" (March 1926)
  28. Gwendolyn B. Bennett, "Wind" (1924)
  29. Gwendolyn B. Bennett, "Heritage" (1923)
  30. Angelina W. Grimke, "Death"
  31. Lucy Ariel Williams, "Northboun'" (1926)
  32. Gwendolyn B. Bennett, "Lines Written at the Grave of Alexandre Dumas" (1926)
  33. Eloise Bibb Thompson, "After Reading Bryant's Lines to a Waterfowl" (1924)
  34. Langston Hughes, "America" (1925)
  35. Langston Hughes, "Liars" (1925)
  36. Wallace Thurman, "God's Edict" (1926)
  37. Lewis Alexander, "Africa" (1924)
  38. Langston Hughes, "Love Song for Lucinda" (1926)
  39. Esther Popel, "Theft" (1925)
  40. Leslie Pinckney Hill, "Voyaging" (1923)
  41. Joseph S. Cotter, "The Tragedy of Pete" (1926)
  42. Langston Hughes, "Teacher" (1926)
  43. Herschell Bek, "Moonlight" (1925)
  44. Gwendolyn B. Bennett, "Street Lamps in Early Spring" (1926)
  45. Countee Cullen, "I Have a Rendezvous With Life" (1924)
  46. Countee Cullen, "Confession" (1926)
  47. Paul Laurence Dunbar, "The Right to Die" (1899)
  48. Gwendolyn B. Bennett, "Hatred" (1926)
  49. Frank Horne, "To a Persistent Phantom" (1926)
  50. Esther Popel, "Kinship"
  51. Arna Bontemps, "God Give to Men" (1925)
  52. Helene Johnson, "Fulfillment" (1926)
  53. Helene Johnson, "Ah My Race" (1925)
  54. Georgia Douglas Johnson, "Lethe" (1926)