The Carolina Magazine: "Negro Numbers" 1929 and 1930 (Subscription to the Harlem Renaissance)

by Eulalie Spence, May Miller, Karen Rae Levine

The Carolina Magazine , the literary magazine of the University of North Carolina, published "Negro Numbers" annually from 1927 until 1930. The purpose of the issues was "...to present an issue representative of Negro life and art," and were a collaboration between prominent Harlem Renaissance writers and a group of students at an all-white university in the Jim Crow South. The four issues are hidden gems of Harlem Renaissance writing, exceptional in that they contain the work the acclaimed contributors must have deemed their best and most provocative work. The 1929 and 1930 issues are combined here in one volume. April 1929 issue: Negro Drama Symbol -- a drawing by Aaron Douglas Plays of Negro Life: A Survey -- an essay by Lewis Alexander And They Nailed Him To a Tree -- an essay by Emile Trevelle Holley Black Damp -- a play by John F. Matheus Scratches -- a play by May Miller The Idle Head -- a play by Willis Richardson Undertow -- a play by Eulalie Spence Nocturne Varial -- a poem by Lewis Alexander My Epitaph -- a poem by Lewis Alexander The Alternative -- a poem by Lewis Alexander My Body -- a poem by Lewis Alexander Wishes -- a poem by Lewis Alexander Sympathy -- a poem by Lewis Alexander Atonement -- a poem by Lewis Alexander May 1930 issue: Red Moon Time -- a short story by Lewis Alexander Door-Stops -- a short story by May Miller A review of Tales of Negro Life A review of The Negro in Literature Not Knowing--He Cautions -- a poem by H. Von Avery He Sings Lost Love -- a poem by H. Von Avery Johnie Thomas -- a poem by Sterling A. Brown Sister Louisa -- a poem by Sterling A. Brown Mulatto -- a poem by Carrie W. Clifford Northern Town Blues -- a poem by Waring Cuney Shadow Imagery -- a poem by Donald Jeffrey Hayes Trivia -- a poem by Frank Horne For the April 1929 issue, a "Negro Play Number" showcased a "younger Negro group" of prize-winning playwrights. By 1930, The Carolina had been absorbed by The Daily Tar Heel and published as a monthly supplement. The May 1930 Negro Number was considerably shorter, and it was the last. Charles S. Johnson (1898-1956), the founder and editor of Opportunity: A Journal of Negro Life, and the first Black president of Fisk University, celebrated the "Negro Issues" of Carolina Magazine (Opportunity, July 1927): "The May issue of The Carolina Magazine is a number of historical importance in race relations in this country. For the first time, as it were, in the time of man, a Southern university magazine has given over one of its numbers to the work of Negro writers. No attempt has been made to inveigle the contributing writers into conformance to any preconceived notions of what should constitute work by Negroes. There is less of irony than of eventual justice in this phenomenon of a magazine the cover of which is decorated with the names of Poe, Cabell, Lanier, Harris, Page, O. Henry and Wilson, bearing on that cover an inset informative of the fact that within there is a brilliant article on The Negro Enters Literature by Charles S. Johnson, a reprint of Symphonesque by Arthur Huff Fauset and reproductions of the work of Aaron Douglas. Other contributors to the number are Arna Bontemps. Helene Johnson, Waring Cuney, Eulalie Spence (represented by The Hunch, one of the prize plays in this year's Opportunity contest), Langston Hughes, Georgia Douglas Johnson, Edward Silvera, Donald Jeffrey Hayes, Angelina Grimke, Effie Lee Newsome, Nelson H. Nichols. Jr., Carrie W. Clifford, and Lewis Alexander, who served as honorary editor of the issue." The cover colors are unknown and based on past issues.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0CVVJR6LS
• ISBN13: 9798879646245
• Release Date: February 2024
• Publisher: Independently published
• Length: 58 Pages
• Dimensions: 11.0" x 0.1" x 8.5"