African American Poetry: A Digital Anthology

The Crisis: a Collection of Poems


The Crisis was a monthly magazine published by the NAACP, which began publication in 1910. Throughout its early years, the magazine was edited by W.E.B. Du Bois. Between 1919-1926, Jessie Fauset served as its Literary Editor. During htat period of time, many young writers who would later be mainstays of the Harlem Renaissance began publishing poetry and criticism in the pages of The Crisis, including Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, as well as Fauset herself. In addition to poetry, the newspaper frequently published criticism and reviews of poetry by Black poets. The most influential of these might be William Stanley Braithwaite's 1919 essay, "The Negro in American Literature" (a revised version of that essay was later reprinted in Alain Locke's The New Negro: an Interpretation). 

Between 1911 and 1926, the magazine published more than 150 poems by a wide range of authors. Below, you'll find the poems we have digitized thus far that appeared in the magazine. 

 

This page has paths:

  1. Welcome: African American Poetry--a Digital Anthology Amardeep Singh

Contents of this tag:

  1. Langston Hughes, "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" (1921)
  2. Carrie Williams Clifford, "The New Year" (1920)
  3. Georgia Douglas Johnson, "A Sonnet: to the Mantled" (1917/1922)
  4. A Sonnet in Memory of John Brown by Georgia Douglas Johnson
  5. James D. Corrothers, "The Road to the Bow" (1913)
  6. Anne Spencer, "Dunbar" (1922)
  7. Benjamin Griffith Brawley, "The Freedom of the Free" (1913)
  8. Benjamint Griffith Brawley, "Shakespeare" (1915)
  9. James D. Corrothers, "The Black Man's Soul" (1915)
  10. Leslie Pinckney Hill, "Armageddon" (1915)
  11. Andrea Razafkeriefo, "In Flanders Fields..." (1920)
  12. C. Bertram Johnson, "Soul and Star" (1919)
  13. L.A. Proctor, "My Little Love Salome" (1911)
  14. Leslie Pinckney Hill, "The Teacher" (1911)
  15. J.W. Work, "It's Great to Be a Problem" (1920)
  16. Georgia Douglas Johnson, "Gossamer" (1916)
  17. Jessie Redmon Fauset, "Rondeau" (1912)
  18. W.E.B. Du Bois, "The Quadroon" (1911)
  19. Angelina W. Grimke, "To the Dunbar High School (A Sonnet)" (1917)
  20. Lucian B. Watkins, "Paul Laurence Dunbar--Poet" (1917)
  21. Virginia P. Jackson, "Africa" (1919)
  22. Alice Dunbar-Nelson, "Sonnet" (1919)
  23. Georgia Douglas Johnson, "Guardianship" (1917)
  24. Charles Bertram Johnson, "Snow" (1920)
  25. Georgia Douglas Johnson, "Again it is the Vibrant May" (1918)
  26. W.E.B. Du Bois, "In God's Gardens" (1912)
  27. Georgia Douglas Johnson, "Prejudice" (1919)
  28. Georgia Douglas Johnson, "Hope" (1917)
  29. Profiles of William Stanley Braithwaite in "The Crisis": "Resurrection" (1911)
  30. W.E.B. Du Bois, "The Burden of Black Women" (1914)
  31. Georgia Douglas Johnson, "Attar" (1920)
  32. Georgia Douglas Johnson, "The Mother" (1917)
  33. William Stanley Braithwaite, "The Vision" (1911)
  34. Amedee Brun, "The Pool" (translated by Jessie Fauset, 1921)
  35. W.E.B. Du Bois, "The Christmas Prayers of God" (1914)
  36. Bertha Johnston, "I Met A Little Blue-Eyed Girl" (1912)
  37. James D. Corrothers, "At the Closed Gate of Justice" (1913)
  38. Georgia Douglas Johnson, "Let Me Not Lose My Dream" (1917)
  39. W.E.B. Du Bois, "Unrest" (1920)
  40. James D. Corrothers, "In the Matter of Two Men" (1915)
  41. Georgia Douglas Johnson, "Shall I Say 'My Son, You Are Branded'?" (1919)
  42. Alston Burleigh, "The Brave Son" (1919)
  43. Carrie Williams Clifford, "An Easter Message" (1920)
  44. James Weldon Johnson, "The Black Mammy" (1915)
  45. Carrie Williams Clifford, "An Easter Message" (1920)
  46. Rosalie Jonas, "The Octoroon Ball" (1911)
  47. B.B. Church, "Maybe" (1923)
  48. Leslie Pinckney Hill, "Father Love" (1919)
  49. Angelina W. Grimke, "To Keep The Memory of Charlotte Forten Grimke" (1915)
  50. Rosalie Jonas, "Brother Baptis' On Woman Suffrage" (1912)
  51. W.E.B. Du Bois, "Joseph Pulitzer" (1911)
  52. Fenton Johnson, "Children of the Sun" (1913)
  53. Leslie Pinckney Hill, "In the Still Night" (1917)
  54. Anne Spencer, "Before the Feast of Shushan (Esther I)" (1920)
  55. Robert J. Laurence, "The Christmas Sermon" (1912)
  56. Josephine T. Washington, "Cedar Hill Saved" (1919)
  57. Carrie Williams Clifford, "Spring" (1915)
  58. Leslie Pinckney Hill, "Vision of a Lyncher" (1912)
  59. Arthur Tunnell, "On Segregation" (1914)
  60. Lucian B. Watkins, "Ballade to Paul Laurence Dunbar" (1918)
  61. Georgia Douglas Johnson, "Peace" (1916)
  62. Charles Bertram Johnson, "Rain-Mist" (1920)
  63. James Weldon Johnson, "The White Witch" (1915)
  64. Georgia Douglas Johnson, "Tears and Kisses" (1917)
  65. Charles Bertram Johnson, "Shadows" (1920)
  66. Georgia Douglas Johnson, "Calling Dreams" (1920)
  67. W.E.B. Du Bois, "Easter-Emancipation 1863-1913 (1913)
  68. B.B. Church, "In This Hour" (1919)
  69. Georgia Douglas Johnson, "My Boy" (1917)
  70. Charles Bertram Johnson, "Race Dreams" (1920
  71. Georgia Douglas Johnson, "Afterglow" (1920)
  72. W.E.B. Du Bois, "A Hymn to the Peoples" (1911)
  73. B. Harrison Peyton, "Lo, the Dusk-Born Daughter!" (1916)
  74. William H.A. Moore “Here in the Time of the Winter Morn” (1912)