Crisis as the Voice of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People - Case Study Example

NAACP and The Crisis: How The Crisis was the Voice of the NAACP Black people were in extremely bad in America at the time when National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was formed. They were attacked and assaulted by the white Americans and their homes were burnt. This caused breakout of riots everywhere in America. Seven people were killed in the summer of the year 1908 in one such race riot that had broken out in Springfield III. This called for a need of a civil rights organization of the potential of NAACP. Having realized this need, on 12 February, 1909, 60 Americans that included both black and white people gathered in the New York City in order to approve a declaration. This declaration was called as “The Call” and the date for it was selected in accordance with the 100th birthday of Lincoln. The group considered as a big step ahead in the abolishment of slavery since 1865. “Since its founding, the NAACP has been at the forefront of racial and economic justice, playing a major role in the transformation of the U.S. from Brown v. Board of Education … to the passage of major civil rights laws” (Lewis, 2009). The Crisis Magazine, which is an accredited quarterly journal of views and analysis among the oldest black journals in the history of America, was founded by William Edward Burghardt Du Bois in 1910 as the leader crusading voice raised for the attainment of civil rights. The Crisis Magazine has remained synonymous with W.E.B. Du Bois for the initial 21 years after its establishment. One of the founders of NAACP, Mary White Ovington said that the magazine’s name was finalized in her conversation with William English Walling, another founder of NAACP. She wrote, We were having an informal talk regarding the new magazine. We touched the subject of poetry. There is a poem of Lowells, I said, that means more to me today than any other poem in the world -- The Present Crisis. Mr. Walling looked up. The Crisis, he said. Theres the name for your magazine, THE CRISIS. (Wormser, 2002). In order to do justice to his job as the editor of The Crisis Magazine, Du Bois left the professorship at Atlanta University. At that time, Du Bois was 42 years of age and was known internationally for his mentorship, scholarship and vocal skills that he used in favor of the African Americans. With his time and effort, Du Bois made the magazine play an important role in the campaign for black civil rights by using it as a militant voice. The Crisis Magazine gained success. In the very first year of its foundation, 1000 copies were circulated. In just 8 years of its foundation, the number of readers raised to 100000. Du Bois used eloquent prose as a tool for launching rhetorical criticism against the people who subdued the rights of African American people and condemning discrimination in all its forms. Du Bois used The Crisis Magazine to criticize the President Woodrow Wilson when in 1913, the federal government was segregated by him officially. Two years later, in 1915, The Crisis Magazine banned the film The Birth of a Nation that denigrated African Americans and glorified the Ku Klux Klan and thus, distorted reconstruction. Du Bois was the youth leader on college campuses when The Crisis Magazine became the militant black America’s voice. Alongside, The Crisis Magazine played an important role in the promotion of arts and the Harlem Renaissance. The magazine also promoted unity among the white and black Americans when the writers from both races published poems, stories and articles in the 1920s. These writers included but were not limited to Langston Hughes, Claude MacKay, H.L. Mencken and James Weldon Johnson. Some of the artists whose paintings were featured in The Crisis Magazine included Laura Wheeler, William Edward Scott, and John Henry Adams. After a clash with Walter White, Du Bois gave resignation from his editorship in NAACP in 1934. The Crisis Magazine has remained popular among the audience as the official periodical of the NAACP for more than a century since its foundation. It has played the role of articulate partner of NAACP in the organization’s century old struggle for the establishment of unity among people of all races in America. The Crisis Magazine is published bi-monthly and provides public with an open and transparent forum where they can conduct debate regarding critical issues related to people of different ethnicities that form part of the American society. Writers conduct thorough primary and secondary research via surveys, focus groups and interviews in order to explore the issues of past and present. The articles published in the periodical discuss issues related to race and their effect upon the economic, educational, moral, social, ethical and political matters of the American society. A section specially reserved for highlighting these issues is title “The NAACP Today”. This section discusses the latest news and events organized by NAACP on various levels. A for-profit enterprise, The Crisis Publishing Company, Inc. that works independently is the publisher of The Crisis Magazine. The opinions and issues expressed in The Crisis Magazine on pages other than “The NAACP Today” may not reflect NAACP’s official status. The official position of NAACP is generally expressed only in this section. The Crisis Magazine is based on the ideology that active cultivation of diverse views from all communities of the American society is the fundamental requirement for the solution of race related issues. “Building on the foundation established by Du Bois, we pledge our commitment to an integrated, non-violent society that rejects all forms of racism, anti-Semitism, sexism and homophobia” (Rice University, n.d.). Evidence can be collected throughout the hundred years of foundation of The Crisis Magazine that tell how NAACP has been using it to voice its concerns. Fro example, a three hours long civil war drama with the title Birth of a Nation was debuted at the Liberty Theater on 3 March 1915. This drama openly referred to the African Americans as racists and made inflammatory assessments about them. America’s reconstruction period was depicted wrongly in this drama and it also portrayed the Ku Klux Klan in an inaccurate manner. Hundreds of moviegoers were attracted by the producers of this film that made use of the advance sales of box office, “seating reservations, enormous Times Square billboards of Ku Klux Klan nightriders with full-sized posters of Klansmen and live actors depicting Klansmen on horseback” (NAACP History, n.d.). Taking notice of the propaganda against the African Americans and the unfair portrayal of their weak moral conduct, NAACP fully condemned the film’s racial caricatures and resolved to take objective measures to prevent the drama from being projected. In an attempt to achieve this, NAACP published Fighting a Vicious Film: Protest Against The Birth of a Nation that was a pamphlet constituting 47 pages in total. In this pamphlet, NAACP referred to the three hours which this drama covered as “three miles of filth” (NAACP History, n.d.). Reviews condemning this racist attempt against the African Americans published by Du Bois in The Crisis played a fundamental role in conveying the NAACP’s voice to the public in those days. Although NAACP was not completely successful in getting the drama altogether banned all across America, yet a lot was achieved in terms of the ban placed upon the display of this drama in Denver, Sr. Louis, Chicago, Kansas City and Pittsburgh. African Americans have conventionally been subjected to injustice in America. Their rights have been subdued by the White Americans and for a long part in the history of America, they have been assigned the jobs requiring them to do menial works. Even today, the African Americans experience an unemployment rate of 16 per cent, which happens to be almost double the average national rate for non-African Americans (NAACP, 2011). The unemployment rate for the African American teenagers increased up to 46 per cent in the past few years. Fighting for the rights of African Americans has thus been one of the prime objectives of NAACP since its establishment. “Our role, therefore, is to meet the problems and effect changes which are indigenous to the vast majority of non-white Americans” (Weaver, 1960). The Crisis has served as the voice of NAACP throughout the century and is doing this job equally efficiently even today. A potential evidence of the way The Crisis Magazine is promoting the ideology of NAACP in the 21st century is the realization of the editor of the injustice done to African Americans in Hollywood today. Hollywood continues to do very little to employ African Americans in television or the movies, either in front of the camera or behind the scenes. When we do see us, it is all too often stereotypical images that are offensive, demeaning, vulgar, violent and distorted. Gone are the wholesome Black families of the 1960’s like Julia and the Huxtables from the 1980’s. Instead, today we see far too many, loud talking clowns or the empty headed girlies. Even more degrading are the scantily clad, women, bumping and grinding in music videos with hood-wearing, gun waving gangstas dripping in gold chains. (Blackburne, 2011). In addition to discussing the issues of national concern, NAACP also uses The Crisis Magazine to convey important information about its own development to the public. Fro example, whenever there is an important day in the history of NAACP, The Crisis Magazine would be the most reasonable place for NAACP to talk about it. NAACP also uses The Crisis Magazine to reveal information about its plans on important dates. In the journal released in spring, 2009, NAACP talked about the completion of its 100th year since its foundation in 1909. “THIS YEAR, the NAACP celebrates its 100th anniversary and will hold its Centennial Convention in New York City from July 11 – July 16” (The Crisis, 2009). In light of all points discussed in this paper, it becomes evident that The Crisis Magazine has served as the voice of the NAACP for over a hundred years. In all the difficult and happy times, when NAACP needed a standard forum to convey its thoughts, concerns and activities to the public, it used The Crisis Magazine to achieve its purpose. Although the voice of NAACP is generally limited to The NAACP Today section of The Crisis Magazine, yet the magazine as a whole aims at promoting the objectives of the NAACP and strives hard to earn the colored people their rights in America. Bibliography: Blackburne, Laura D., “Editor’s Note.” The Crisis Magazine, 2011, http://www.thecrisismagazine.com/ (accessed September 14, 2011). Lewis, Tyler, “NAACP Turns 100 Today.” The Leadership Conference, 2009, http://www.civilrights.org/archives/2009/02/075-naacp-bday.html (accessed September 14, 2011). NAACP, “President Obama Answers NAACP Call to Fight Employment Discrimination in Push to Create New Jobs,” 2011, http://www.naacp.org/news/entry/the-presidents-jobs-speech (accessed September 14, 2011). NAACP History, “The Timeline,” n.d., http://www.naacphistory.org/Default.aspx?AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1#/timeline (accessed September 14, 2011). Rice University, “NAACP,” n.d., http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~naacp/history.html, (accessed September 14, 2011). The Crisis, “The NAACP Today” Vol. 116, No. 2. ISSN 0011-1422, 2009, The Crisis Publishing Company, Inc. Weaver, Robert C., “The NAACP Today.” The Journal of Negro Education. Vol. 29. No. 4, 1960, http://www.jstor.org/pss/2294212/ (accessed September 14, 2011). Wormser, Richard, “Jim Crow Stories,” 2002, http://www.pbs.org/wnet/jimcrow/stories_events_crisis.html (accessed September 14, 2011). Read More