A. Philip Randolph’s ‘The Messenger’ with a special Labor Day Number.

The Messenger. Vol. 5 No. 9. July, 1923.

Contents: Editorials: Labor Day; No More War; Coolidge; France and the Negro; Germany; The Negro Workers’ Hegira Hits South’s Prosperity; The Workers in the Ruhr and Europe; Native South African Workers Awakening; Harding; Tuskegee, Shafts and Darts by George S Schuyler, A Message to Negro Workers by Samuel Gompers, Labor Day by John L Lewis, White Supremacy in Organized Labor by Chandler Owens – White Men’s Jobs – Negroes Lost Confidence in White Unions – Flirting With the Employers – Employers Put Negroes in Unions – Machinery and Labor Movement – What Will the Unions Do?, The Mixed Union Merits and Demerits by William D. Jones (Secretary Philadelphia Longshoremen’s Union), “A Call from Macedonia” [Black South African Labor Movement] by Clements Kaladie (General Secretary Industrial and Commercial Workers’ Union of South Africa), These Colored United States Vol. V. Mississippi: ‘The Sun Kissed’ Folks by J Egert Allen, A Platform for Black and White by William Pickens, Theater Reviews by Theophilus Lewis, Book Reviews by Eric Walbond, Open Forum: Letters.

The Messenger was founded and published in New York City by A. Phillip Randolph and Chandler Owen in 1917 after they both joined the Socialist Party of America. The Messenger opposed World War I, conscription and supported the Bolshevik Revolution, though it remained loyal to the Socialist Party when the left split in 1919. It sought to promote a labor-orientated Black leadership, “New Crowd Negroes,” as explicitly opposed to the positions of both WEB DuBois and Booker T Washington at the time. Both Owen and Randolph were arrested under the Espionage Act in an attempt to disrupt The Messenger. Eventually, The Messenger became less political and more trade union focused. After the departure of and Owen, the focus again shifted to arts and culture. The Messenger ceased publishing in 1928. Its early issues contain invaluable articles on the early Black left.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/messenger/v5n09-sep-1923-Messenger-riaz-fix.pdf