A largely unsung group of black women were a driving force in the movement, writing poetry, managing literary journals, and holding salons that nurtured Harlem’s great social revolution of the 1920s.

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A magazine called The Crisis, played a major role in the Black Renaissance of the 20s. Selling 100,000 copies a month, it gave voice to young writers like Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston. W.E.B. Du Bois launched the magazine under the auspices of the NAACP, but it was a dedicated woman, working in his shadow, who ran The Crisis—and shaped its literary style.

Jessie Redmon Fauset is remembered today as the “Midwife of the Harlem Renaissance.” A poet and novelist herself, she shouldered the lion’s share of the work of publishing The Crisis. Another great labor of love for her was The Brownie’s Book—a magazine for “children of color”—with poems, African folk tales, and stories about black leaders.

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