Chapter 15, "Rise of the Crisis, Decline of the Wizard" Summary and Analysis

Years later Du Bois says he shifts from economics to propaganda because of all the frustrating events happening in the world around him, but Lewis thinks this choice suits his nature too. The first action Du Bois takes in his new job is to start a magazine for the NAACP called The Crisis: a Record of the Darker Races even though his other magazines have failed. He publishes and prints 1,000 copies of his first issue with help from Villard. Lewis says the style is influenced by writings by Frederick Douglass as well as The Globe and Freeman. In his opening remarks in the magazine, Du Bois promises to use the magazine to show the dangers of race prejudice.

The first issue ironically criticizes...