The Messenger (magazine)

The Messenger was an early 20th-century political and literary magazine by and for African-American people in the United States. It was important to the emergence of the Harlem Renaissance and initially promoted a socialist political view. The Messenger was co-founded in New York City by Chandler Owen and A. Philip Randolph in August 1917. Popular writers for the magazine included Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes, and Claude Mckay.

After 1920, The Messenger featured more articles about black culture and began to publish rising black writers. It became a literary magazine (similar to The Little Review, the revived The Dial, and The Liberator), contributing to the Harlem Renaissance. It was notable for helping strengthen African-American intellectual and political identity in the age of Jim Crow. Through the 1920s, The Messenger also noted the success of blacks who were reaching the middle class in business and the professions, publishing a series of essays known as "These 'Colored' United States", submitted by writers across the country. "These 'Colored' United States" was edited by Tom Lutz and Susanna Ashton.