Selections from The Brownies' Book: Writings in Periodicals Edited by W.E.B. Du Bois

Millwood, NY: Kraus-Thomson Organization Limited (1st thus, 1980). Like new hardcover with blue cloth boards, 159 pages. No dust jacket (if issued). ISBN 9780527253455

ABOUT THE BOOK: This book contains SELECTIONS from THE BROWNIES' BOOK, compiled and edited by Herbert Aptheker. It is part of Aptheker's The Complete Published Works of W.E.B. Du Bois.

In January 1920 a new monthly magazine was born, created especially for young people the editors called "the Children of the Sun." W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor and writer who was one of the founders of the NAACP, was publisher and editor. Augustus Granville Dill, a former professor of social sciences at Atlanta University, was the business manager. Jessie Redmon Fauset, author and mentor to other African-American writers, was the literary editor. Their magazine was The Brownies' Book and its readers were the African-American young people of the 1920s.

Few children's magazines, movies, school books, or picture books in the 1920s portrayed black people at all, or if they did it was only in minor and unimportant positions. The Brownies' Book gave African-American children an opportunity to see that the history and achievements of black people in America were essential and worth knowing about. The magazine was interesting and fun, with stories, poetry, biographies of famous black Americans, reports on international cultures, articles about the accomplishments of young people from all over the country, and photographs and beautiful artwork created by African-American artists.