The Northwest enterprise. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1931-1952, 1949-01-12
OPPORTUNITY
SUSPENDS
PUBLICATION

StAHAI1 RuAtaHr kaNHatoH fHAHHeo
Among Noted Writers Discovered
NEW YORK, N. Y. = oPPROR-
rUNTTY. Journal OF Negro life,
and official organ Of the National
Urban League. win suspend pub
LEGATION following the appearance
of its final issue next month.
This announcement was made
last week by Lloyd X. Garrison,
President of the National Urban
League. as he made public the
recent a action OF the social work
agency's Executive Board. THE
Urban League takes this oppor-
tunity", Mr.. Garrison declared, ITO
express gratitude to the contribu-
tors, subscribers, advertisers. and
other. friends of OPPORTUNITY
who gave on scores of occasions
proving their loyalty to an ideal"
OPPORTUNITY was first issued
on January 1, 1923. under the
editorship of DR.. Charles S. John
son, now President of Fisk Uni
vedsity, because of long and
insistent demand for a journal of
Negro life that would devote IT,
self religiously to the interpre-
tation of the social problems of
the Negro population.
BY the end OF its first year of
publication OPPORTUNITY had
notably galaxy of writer's In all
fields of endeavor who rad con-
tributed to its pages. Among them
were: Raymond Pace Alexander,
s. Parkes Cadman, William H.
Baldwin. George R. Arthur, Robert
w. Bagnall, Gwendolyn Bannett,
Eva Bowles, Countee Cullen, An
gelina w. Grimke, Abram L. Har-
ris, Alain Leroy Locke, Kelly
Miller, Sr., Leslie Pinkney Hill,
Francis Holbrack, Georgia Dou-
glass Johnson, Guy B. Johnson,
Howard H. Long, Robert R. Motion,
Alexander A. Goldenweiser, G. G.
Spaulding, Frank J. O'Brien, A.
Clayton Powell, ST., Eric Waldron,
L. Hollingsworth Wood, Monroe
w. Work, and William Leo Hans
berry.
Noted Writers "Dlscovered"
Through series of annual lit
erary contests, beginning In 1924,
OPPORTUNITY discovered" and
gave cash awards to promising
but relatively unknown men and
women writers who became ident-
flied with the Negro Renaissance
of the 1920's. First Mrs. Henry
Goddard Leach and later Casper
Holstein, Carl Van Vechten, and
the Magazine itself backed the
literary contests financially. Both
the contests and annual award
dinners attracted the nations best
literary minds and wide attention
in the daily and weekly press.
These events ushered In what has
been described as the Golden
Age of OPPORTUNITY"
Some of the early prizewinners
In these contests were: = John
Fora Neal Hurston, Eric
Waldron, Langston Hughes, Coun-
tee Cullen, Clarissa Scott, Joseph
s. Cotter, Helen Johnson, Claude
Mckay, Carrie w. Clifford, e.
Franklin FRAZIER. Sterling Brown,
Laura A. wheatley, Lucius Scott,
Easter Popel, G. d. Lipscomb,
Jean Ray. EIoise Bibb Thompson,
Fidelia Ripley, J. G. Stubs. Art
hur Huff Fauset, Dorothy West,
Lee Wallace. Eugene Gordon, War
ing Quincy, Brenda Moryck, Miles
Mark Fish and Arna Bontemps.
In the years following, the con-
tests of the Magazine was mod
flied as OPPORTUNITIES original
purpose of encouraging promising
creative writers was almost COM
pletely fulfilled. Greater emphasis
was placed on publishing serious
articles and opinions designed to
the detectives Of the
Urban League, principally among
Its members.
During this later period brilliant
reviews on current books or race
relations were featured in the
through DR.. Alain
Locke's Retrospective Review of
the Negro and Sterling Browns
Chronicle and Comment" These
two productions are regarded as
permanent and valuable contribu=
lions to American literary criu-
cism.
This period is studded with
names of such eminent person
alities as DIR. Ralph Bunche, Pearl
Buck, H. L. Mencken, Oswald
Garrison Willard, Will w. Alexan-
der, Edwin L. Embree and Harvey
Firestone, Jr.