Brownies’ Book

The Brownies’ Book was a short-lived but influential early 20th-century African American children’s magazine and one of the first periodicals designed for young readers of color. An outgrowth of the annual “Children’s Number” of The Crisis, the magazine of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, The Brownies’ Book appeared monthly from January 1920 through December 1921 under the editorial direction of W. E. B. Du Bois and Jessie Redmon Fauset. This entry describes the magazine’s origins and aims, its format and recurring features, and its impact on African American children’s literature.