The Best of the Crisis Magazine: Over 100 Years of Excellence in Black Literature from 1910 to Today

The iconic NAACP magazine’s most dynamic and daring African American voices are gathered together for the first time in this groundbreaking literary collection, spanning from founding editor W. E. B. Du Bois and Jessie Fauset to contemporary cultural critics including June Shagaloff and Michael A. Lawrence.

The Crisis is the official magazine of the NAACP. Founded in 1910 by renowned historian, civil rights activist, and NAACP cofounder W. E. B. Du Bois, the publication preceded the American edition of Vanity Fair by three years and The New Yorker by fifteen.

Du Bois launched The Crisis from a single room in the New York Evening Post building in New York City and served as its editor until 1934. Its name was inspired by James Russell Lowell’s poem The Present Crisis, written during the Civil War.

In the premiere issue, Du Bois outlined the magazine’s mission: to document important events and movements affecting race relations and Black Americans, review books and public opinion on racial issues, publish short articles, and advocate for equal rights and the highest ideals of American democracy.

At a time when Black people were rarely portrayed with dignity in mainstream media, The Crisis transformed how African Americans saw themselves represented in print. Through photography, literature, journalism, art, and political commentary, the magazine became a vital platform for Black intellectual and cultural life.

The Best of the Crisis brings together some of the magazine’s most influential voices and landmark pieces from its founding to the present. Contributors include W. E. B. Du Bois, Thurgood Marshall, Bayard Rustin, Francis Grimké, J. A. Rogers, Stetson Kennedy, E. Franklin Frazier, Oswald Garrison Villard, Jessie Fauset, and Arna Bontemps.

The collection also highlights many of the magazine’s pioneering achievements, including early sections devoted to Black children, presentations of Black visual art, profiles of successful Black Americans, advocacy for Pan-Africanism, coverage of Black educational advancement, and discussions of consumer cooperation. Contemporary voices revisit these themes to consider where the nation stands today.