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

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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. 

 

Contents of this tag:

  1. Langston Hughes, "To Midnight Nan at Leroy's" (1926)
  2. Langston Hughes, "Our Land: Poem for a Decorative Panel " (1923)
  3. Langston Hughes, "The Weary Blues" (1925)
  4. Langston Hughes, "The White Ones" (1924)
  5. Countee Cullen, "A Song of Praise (For one who praised his lady's being fair)" (1924)
  6. Gwendolyn B. Bennett, "To Usward" (1924)
  7. Angelina W. Grimke, "Little Grey Dreams" (1924)
  8. Angelina W. Grimke, "I Weep" (1924)
  9. Angelina W. Grimke, "Dusk" (1924)
  10. Countee Cullen, "Brown Boy to Brown Girl (Remembrance on a hill) (For Yolanda)" (1924)
  11. Countee Cullen, "I Have a Rendezvous With Life" (1924)
  12. Angelina Weld Grimke, "For the Candle Light" (1925)
  13. Langston Hughes, "Teacher" (1926)
  14. Gwendolyn B. Bennett, "Purgation" (1925)
  15. Gwendolyn B. Bennett, "Street Lamps in Early Spring" (1926)
  16. Helene Johnson, "Futility" (1926)
  17. Richard Bruce (Bruce Nugent), "Shadow" (1925)
  18. Langston Hughes, "Troubled Women" (1925)
  19. Gwendolyn B. Bennett, "Hatred" (1926)
  20. Arna Bontemps, "God Give to Men" (1925)
  21. William H.A. Moore, "Sonnet" (1925)
  22. Helene Johnson, "Fulfillment" (1926)
  23. Gwendolyn B. Bennett, "Heritage" (1923)
  24. Arna Bontemps, "Golgotha Is a Mountain" (1926)
  25. Angelina W. Grimke, "Death"
  26. Helene Johnson, "Metamorphism" (1926)
  27. Gwendolyn B. Bennett, "Lines Written at the Grave of Alexandre Dumas" (1926)
  28. Arna Bontemps, "Here Is the Sea" (1926)
  29. Langston Hughes, "Liars" (1925)
  30. Helene Johnson, "Night" (1926)
  31. Wallace Thurman, "God's Edict" (1926)
  32. Eloise Bibb Thompson, "After Reading Bryant's Lines to a Waterfowl" (1924)
  33. Arna Bontemps, "Homing" (1926)
  34. Esther Popel, "Theft" (1925)
  35. Helene Johnson, "Trees at Night" (1925)
  36. Joseph S. Cotter, "The Tragedy of Pete" (1926)
  37. Lewis Alexander, "Africa" (1924)
  38. Arna Bontemps, "The Day-Breakers" (1926)
  39. Herschell Bek, "Moonlight" (1925)
  40. Angelina W. Grimke, "The Black Finger" (1923)
  41. Countee Cullen, "Confession" (1926)
  42. Paul Laurence Dunbar, "The Right to Die" (1899)
  43. Arna Bontemps, "The Shattering" (March 1926)
  44. Gwendolyn B. Bennett, "Wind" (1924)
  45. Frank Horne, "To a Persistent Phantom" (1926)
  46. Esther Popel, "Kinship"
  47. Lucy Ariel Williams, "Northboun'" (1926)
  48. Helene Johnson, "Ah My Race" (1925)
  49. Georgia Douglas Johnson, "Lethe" (1926)
  50. Langston Hughes, "America" (1925)
  51. Esther Popel, "Credo" (1925)
  52. Helene Johnson, "The Road" (1926)
  53. James Edward McCall, "The New Negro" (1927)
  54. Langston Hughes, "Love Song for Lucinda" (1926)
  55. Countee Cullen, "From Life to Love" (1925)
  56. Leslie Pinckney Hill, "Voyaging" (1923)
  57. Helene Johnson, "Magalu" (1926)

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