Dare You Fight: W.E.B. Du Bois in The Crisis

Over 700 editorials by W.E.B. Du Bois from The Crisis magazine (1910-1934), the most sustained campaign of political journalism in American history.

A Digital Archive

Dare You Fight

The Writings of W.E.B. Du Bois in The Crisis, 1910–1934

W.E.B. Du Bois and staff in the Crisis magazine office
W.E.B. Du Bois and staff in the offices of The Crisis, ca. 1911

"A toothache is agitation," Du Bois wrote in November 1910, answering critics who urged silence. "Is a toothache a good thing? No. Is it therefore useless? No. It is supremely useful, for it tells the body of decay, dyspepsia and death." For twenty-four years he made The Crisis the toothache of American democracy: documenting lynching, tracking disfranchisement, connecting Jim Crow to empire, and building the case for Black citizenship in prose that could shift from forensic precision to prophetic fury within a single page.

This archive collects over 700 of those editorials, spanning the magazine's founding in 1910 through Du Bois's resignation in 1934. They can be browsed by theme or read chronologically.

708 articles · 24 volumes · 1910–1934

Explore the Collection

Browse by Theme Fourteen thematic pages on segregation, lynching, voting, labor, Pan-Africanism, art, religion, and more. All Articles Over 700 editorials, searchable and sortable by date, title, or keyword. Du Bois & The Crisis From Du Bois's first magazines through the war years, the Harlem Renaissance, and his resignation. Magazine Covers The visual history of The Crisis, issue by issue, from 1910 to 1934. About This Project Editorial conventions, how to cite, and how to contribute.

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