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''The Messenger'' was a political and literary magazine by and for African-American people in the early 20th century that was important in the flowering of the Harlem Renaissance. ''The Messenger'' was co-founded in New York City by Chandler Owen and A. Philip Randolph in August 1917. After 1920, ''The Messenger'' featured more articles about black culture and began to publish rising black writers. It became a kind of literary magazine (like ''The Little Review'', the revived ''The Dial'', and ''The Liberator''). It was notable for helping strengthen African-American intellectual and political identity in the age of Jim Crow.〔Adam McKible, ''The Space and Place of Modernism: The Little Magazine in New York'', New York: Routledge, 2002. ISBN 0-415-93980-1〕 ==History== Toward the end of 1916, A. Philip Randolph and Chandler Owen dropped out of college, joined the Socialist Party, and gave soapbox orations on street corners around Harlem. Their socialist and labor union propagandizing gained them celebrity in the area. When they walked into the office building at 486 Lenox Avenue while looking for a meeting space for their Independent Political Council, they were recognized by William White, President of the Headwaiters and Sidewaiters Society of Greater New York. He suggested they move into his society’s headquarters and edit a monthly magazine for waiters. From January until August 1917, Randolph and Owen brought out the ''Hotel Messenger'' until their exposé of union corruption (wherein the headwaiters were selling uniforms to sidewaiters at high prices and pocketing the kickbacks from uniform dealers) resulted in their immediate dismissal. They moved into an office next door at 513 Lenox Avenue and, with the patronage of Randolph’s wife Lucille, launched the ''Messenger''. The first issue cost 15 cents (its price would never change) and ran the mission statement written by Randolph and Owen: :“Our aim is to appeal to reason, to lift our pens above the cringing demagogy of the times, and above the cheap peanut politics of the old reactionary Negro leaders. Patriotism has no appeal to us; justice has. Party has no weight with us; principle has. Loyalty is meaningless; it depends on what one is loyal to. Prayer is not one of our remedies; it depends on what one is praying for. We consider prayer as nothing more than a fervent wish; consequently the merit and worth of a prayer depend upon what the fervent wish is.”〔(''The Messenger'' ), Spartacus〕 Declaring that “with us, economics and politics take precedence to music and art,” the magazine’s first two years were primarily devoted to advocating black labor unionism and socialism, and denouncing the War and its effects on black Americans. The magazine attacked President Woodrow Wilson’s call to make “the world safe for democracy,” as the black community was at risk in the U.S., having suffered a high rate of lynchings in the South and other violence. Its editors also criticized major black figures such as W. E. B. Du Bois, who was pro-war at the time, and Marcus Garvey. They believed that Garvey's program to “repatriate” native-born American black citizens to Africa was illogical and far fetched. The ''Messenger'' declared: “No intelligent Negro is willing to lay down his life for the United States as it now exists. Intelligent Negroes have now reached the point where their support of the country is conditional.”Such statements led to Justice Department agents ransacking the ''Messenger''′s editorial office in the dead of night, breaking furniture and confiscating back issues. Randolph and Owen conducted a public speaking tour against the war, appearing in Chicago and Cleveland, while selling copies of their fiery July 1918 issue. Reaching Cleveland on August 4, Randolph and Owen took turns addressing the mass meeting gathered by Cleveland’s Socialist Party leader Walter Bronstrup. He sold issues of the ''Messenger'' in the crowd until an undercover Justice Department official bought an issue and broke up the meeting. He pulled Randolph from the stage, arrested him and Owen, and held them the following day for investigation. Randolph and Owen were held for trial under charges of violating the Espionage Act: “unlawfully, knowingly and feloniously, the United States being then and there at war with the Imperial German Government, willfully print and cause to be printed, publish and cause to be published, circulated, in a certain language intended to incite, provoke and incur resistance to the United States and to promote the cause of its enemies in a certain publication known as the ''Messenger''.”〔Jervis Anderson, ''A. Philip Randolph: A Biographical Portrait'', New York: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1973, p. 107.〕 After two days in jail they were brought to trial. The judge, looking at the two men and what they had written, said that he could not believe they were old enough, or, being black, smart enough to write that “red-hot stuff”.〔 He did not doubt that they were being used by white socialists who had written the editorials for them. He said there would be no trial and ordered Randolph and Owen returned to their parents' homes; telling them to leave town quickly. The men continued their tour. When they returned to New York, they learned that the Postmaster General Albert Burleson had denied second-class mailing privileges to their magazine because of its content. Socialism failed to attract followers in Harlem. By February 1920 the ''Messenger'' identified as “A Journal of Scientific Radicalism;” in June 1923, it billed itself as “The World’s Greatest Negro Monthly.” It published increasing amounts of poetry, stories, and other work of Harlem intellectuals as the area became the center for black culture. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「The Messenger (magazine)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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