As the official magazine of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP,) The Crisis is one of the longest running African American journals in the history of American publishing. Throughout its century-long publication, The Crisis has made immeasurable contributions to the careers of several female African American writers, including Anita Scott Coleman, Mary Church Terrell, and Jessie Fauset. This anthology collects all of the short stories published in The Crisis by African American women during the magazine’s first century of publication, offering an historical, literary, and cultural perspective on the lives of African American women from the Harlem Renaissance to the present.

Judith Musser is a professor of English at La Salle University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She has written previously on women writers of the Harlem Renaissance.

Edited by Judith Musser
Format: softcover (7 x 10)
Pages: 471
Bibliographic Info: notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2011
pISBN: 978-0-7864-4606-3
Imprint: McFarland

Table of Contents


Acknowledgments vi

Introduction 1

Emmy (Jessie Fauset) 23

My House and a Glimpse of My Life Therein (Jessie Fauset ) 41

His Motto (Lottie Burrell Dixon) 43

Hope Deferred (Mrs. Paul Lawrence Dunbar) 46

The Fairy Good Willa (Minnibell Jones) 52

Breaking the Color-Line (Annie McCary) 54

Polly’s Hack Ride (Mrs. Emma E. Butler) 57

“Bits”: A Christmas Story (Helen G. Ricks) 59

Mammy (Adeline F. Ries) 63

“There Was One Time!”: A Story of Spring (Jessie Fauset) 64

Aunt Calline’s Sheaves (Leila Amos Pendleton) 75

Leonora’s Conversion (Edna May Harrold) 76

A Legend of the Blue Jay (Ruth Anna Fisher) 78

At the Turn of the Road (Helen G. Ricks) 79

A Fairy Story (Carry S. Bond) 82

Mary Elizabeth (Jessie Fauset) 84

El Tisico (Anita Scott Coleman) 89

The Sleeper Wakes: A Novelette (Jessie Fauset) 91

The Foolish and the Wise: Sallie Runner Is Introduced to Socrates (Leila Amos Pendleton) 108

Two Americans (Florence Lewis Bentley) 111

Buyers of Dreams: A Story (Ethel M. Caution) 117

The Foolish and the Wise: Sanctum 777 N.S.D.C.O.U. Meets Cleopatra (Leila Amos Pendleton) 119

The Yellow Tree (DeReath Byrd Busey) 123

Aunt Dinah and Dilsey Discuss the Problem (Mary Church Terrell) 126

To a Wild Rose (Ottie B. Graham) 128

Double Trouble (Jessie Fauset) 132

Blue Aloes: A Story (Ottie B. Graham) 141

The Bewitched Sword (Ola Calhoun Morehead) 149

“There Never Fell a Night So Dark” (Mary Louise French) 150

Three Dogs and a Rabbit (Anita Scott Coleman) 154

The Prison-Bound (Marita Bonner) 160

Nothing New (Marita Bonner) 162

In Houses of Glass (Ethel R. Clark) 167

One Boy’s Story (Joseph M. Andrew [Marita Bonner]) 172

Drab Rambles (Marita O. Bonner) 180

Bathesda of Sinners Run (Maude Irwin Owens) 186

Days (Brenda Ray Moryck) 194

House of Hark Back: A Tale for Young Folk (Effie Lee Newsome) 200

Anna (Iva L. Cotton) 202

The Papaloi (Annice Calland) 204

White Lilacs (Edith L. Yancy) 207

Deepening Dusk (Edith Manuel Durham) 210

Honor (Lillian Beverton Mason) 221

The Prodigal (Laura D. Nichols) 225

The Greater Gift: A Christmas Story (Marie Louise French) 227

The Three Mosquitoes: A Story of Marriage and Birth (Anne Du Bignon) 230

The Doctor’s Dilemma: A Story of Tuberculosis (Anne Du Bignon) 237

The Farm on the Eastern Shore: A Story of Work (Anne Du Bignon) 240

Two Old Women A-Shopping Go!: A Story of Man, Marriage and Poverty (Anita Scott Coleman) 249

The Thoughts of a Colored Girl: A Story of Realization (Margaret K. Cunningham) 253

Black Mestiza (Madelen C. Lane) 255

Black Velvet (Juanita DeShield) 259

Emergency Exit (Carol Cotton) 262

The Farmer (Violet G. Haywood) 266

Masquerade (Isabel M. Thompson) 268

Serena Sings (Octavia B. Wynbush) 271

Echo of the Distant Drum (Carol B. Cotton) 276

The Conversion of Harvey (Octavia B. Wynbush) 280

Mob Madness (Marion Cuthbert) 288

Lady Blanche and the Christ: After the Manner of the Mediaeval Tale (Octavia Beatrice Wynbush) 291

The Return of a Modern Prodigal (Octavia B. Wynbush) 294

The Christmas Candle (Octavia B. Wynbush) 301

March Wind (Edna Quinn) 305

Conjure Man (Octavia B. Wynbush) 309

Bride of God (Octavia B. Wynbush) 321

Hate Is Nothing (Joyce N. Reed [Marita Bonner]) 327

Ticket Home: A Christmas Story (Octavia B. Wynbush) 338

Our House (Elisabeth Thomas) 344

The Coon Hunt (Thelma Rea Thurston) 347

Call It Social Security (Edwina Streeter Dixon) 350

The Whipping (Marita Bonner) 353

Hongry Fire (Marita Bonner) 359

Plantation Stain (Corinne Dean) 368

Patch Quilt (Marita Bonner) 372

Sunday (Lucille Boehm) 377

Horns and Tails (Corinne Dean) 381

Girl, Colored (Marian Minus) 387

Joe Charles King (Vera L. Williams) 391

“Behold I Stand…” (Violet C. Haywood) 394

Grazing in Good Pastures (Margaret Williams) 396

One True Love (Marita Bonner) 402

Boyzie (Lucille Boehm) 407

On Saturday the Siren Sounds at Noon (Ann Petry) 413

Heart Against the Wind (Gwendolyn Williams) 417

“Whatsoever Things Are Lovely” (Florence McDowell) 419

At My Table (Teresa O’Hiser) 422

Olaf and His Girl Friend (Ann Petry) 425

The Black Streak (Octavia B. Wynbush) 432

Like a Winding Sheet (Ann Petry) 438

It’s Never Too Early: A Trilogy (Thelma Thurston Gorham) 443

They Know Not What They Do (Mary J. Kyle) 447

Ghetto Sounds (Hazel James) 452

Touch Me! (Hazel James) 453

The Lions and the Rabbits: A Fable (Mary Carter Smith) 455

Index 459