JANUARY 1925: Cover art by Winold Reiss. Poems by Countee Cullen, Georgia Douglas Johnson, Esther Popel, and more.
MAY 1927: African Art themed issue, featuring numerous articles with photographs. Also the short story, "High Ball" by Claude McKay.
JUNE 1926: Special issue of Opportunity's annual Literary Prize Contest, with short story, essay, and poetry winners.
FEBRUARY 1925: Poems by Langston Hughes and Gwendolyn Bennett, and a biography of her father by Angelina Weld Grimke.
JULY 1926: Cover art by Gwendolyn Bennett. Poems by Gwendolyn Bennett, Countee Cullen, Georgia Douglas Johnson, Dorothy West, and more.
MARCH 1927: Cover art: from a pastel drawing of Langston Hughes by Winold Reiss. Four poems by Langston Hughes, and more.
SEPTEMBER 1928: This issue is the first and, unfortunately, also the last. It contains stories, essays, and poems by Langston Hughes, Alain Locke, Alice Dunbar-Nelson, Helene Johnson, and other notable authors.
JANUARY 1920: The first magazine created to empower and entertain African American children. Photos, poems, and narratives for children by the leading writers and artists of the era.
APRIL 1923: Cover art by Laura Wheeler. Poems by Charles Bertram Johnson, editorials by W.E.B. Du Bois, and more.
APRIL 1926: Cover Art by Laura Wheeler Waring. The contents include W.E.B. Du Bois’s famous speech, “The Negro in Art,” a poem by Langston Hughes, “The Little Page,” a column for children by Effie Lee Newsome, and more.
SEPTEMBER 1926: Cover art by Ted Carroll. Included are “The Eatonville Anthology" by Zora Neale Hurston, poems by Langston Hughes and Georgia Douglas Johnson, and more.
BLACK OPALS, a literary journal based in Philadelphia, was co-founded by Nellie Rathbone Bright and Arthur Huff Fauset to highlight and encourage young African American writers. Well-known writers like Alain Locke and Langston Hughes also contributed. Today, original copies of these four small but powerful issues are very rare. (Reproductions are 6x9 inches, 24 pages each)
Spring 1927 contributors include: Nellie R. Bright, Arthur Huff Fauset, Alain Locke, Langston Hughes, and Mae V. Cowdery. Christmas 1927: Jessie Redmon Fauset, Nellie R. Bright, and Mae V. Cowdery. June 1928: Walter Waring, Edward Silvera, Mae V. Cowdery, Lewis Alexander, and art by Allan Freelon. Christmas 1928: Walter Waring, Gertrude P. McBrown, Lewis Alexander, Mae V. Cowdery, and art by Lois Mailou Jones.
1927: Contributors: Aaron Douglas, Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, Arthur Huff Fauset, Helene Johnson, and more
1928: Contributors: Alain Locke, Arna Bontemps, Charles S. Johnson, Langston Hughes, Alice Dunbar-Nelson, and more.
1929 &1930: Contributors: Aaron Douglas, Eulalie Spence, Willis Richardson, John Matheus, May Miller, and more.