The Carolina Magazine: "Negro Number" May 1928 (Subscription to the Harlem Renaissance)

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. May 1928 issue The New Negro -- a drawing by Allan R. Freelon Jazz Poetry and Blues -- an essay by Charles S. Johnson The Message of the Negro Poets -- an essay by Alain Locke A Review of Rainbow Round My Shoulder A Review of Caroling Dusk Barefoot Blues -- a poem by Lewis Alexander Bought Sense -- a poem by Lewis Alexander Tree Meditation -- a poem by Lewis Alexander Nocturne of the Wharves -- a poem by Arna Bontemps Jazz -- a poem by Arna Bontemps Old Man Buzzard -- a poem by Sterling A. Brown Appeal -- a poem by Carrie W. Clifford Warning -- a poem by Carrie W. Clifford Of The Earth -- a poem by Mae V. Cowdery Once Bad Gal -- a poem by Waring Cuney Aint Nobody But You -- a poem by Waring Cuney De Jail Blues Song -- a poem by Waring Cuney Suicide -- a poem by Waring Cuney A Prayer -- a poem by Alice Dunbar-Nelson Episode -- a poem by Jessie Fauset Trees -- a poem by Angelina W. Grimke Lament -- a poem by Donald Jeffrey Hayes Lover's Return -- a poem by Langston Hughes Boy on Beale Street -- a poem by Langston Hughes African Dancer In Paris -- a poem by Langston Hughes Boy -- a poem by Langston Hughes The Black Runner -- a poem by Georgia Douglas Johnson Nonchalance -- a poem by Georgia Douglas Johnson Store -- a poem by Georgia Douglas Johnson Contemplation -- a poem by Georgia Douglas Johnson Belle Mam'selle of Martinique -- a poem by John F. Matheus To One Who Might Have Been My Friend -- a poem by Nellie R. Bright Query -- a poem by Nellie R. Bright The Feast of Death -- a poem by Edward S. Silvera A Portrait -- a poem by James H. Young 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.