Stenerson, Douglas. Critical Essays on H. L. Mencken.
Boston: G. K. Hall, 1987.
Yardley, Jonathan, ed. My Life as Author and Editor by H.
L. Mencken.New York: Knopf, 1993.
Meschrabpom Film Corporation
The Russian film company that planned to pro-
duce BLACK ANDWHITE,a film about race and
racism in America. Known as the Meschrabpom
Film of the Worker’s International Relief, the com-
pany’s interests were supported by an American
organization, the Co-operating Committee on Pro-
duction of a Soviet Film on Negro Life. The chair
of the committee was W. A. DOMINGO.LOUISE
THOMPSONvolunteered her time to the commit-
tee and served as executive secretary. It was she
who promoted Black and Whiteand solicited her
colleagues and friends to join. Domingo believed
that the company would “trace the development of
the Negro people in America, their work, their
play, their progress, their difficulties” and do so in a
film that was “devoid of sentimentality as well as of
buffoonery” (Berry, 156).
Twenty-two individuals agreed to work with
the company, and in 1932 they sailed for Russia to
begin the project. Among those who went were
LANGSTONHUGHES, Loren Miller, TEDPOSTON,
Louise Thompson, and DOROTHY WEST. The
company ultimately canceled the project under
pressure from white investors who wanted to sup-
press the realistic and negative depictions of
American society.
Langston Hughes, who had been called to tes-
tify in March 1953 before the Senate Permanent
Subcommittee on Investigations of the Committee
on Government Operations, endured questions
about his travels in Russia.
Bibliography
Berry, Faith, ed. Langston Hughes: Before and Beyond
Harlem.Westport, Conn.: Lawrence Hill & Com-
pany, 1983.
Rampersad, Arnold. The Life of Langston Hughes: I, Too,
Sing America.Vol. 1: 1902–1941.New York: Oxford
University Press, 1986.
———. The Life of Langston Hughes: I Dream a World.
Vol. 2: 1941–1967.New York: Oxford University
Press, 1988.
Messenger, The
The monthly journal that A. PHILIPRANDOLPH
and CHANDLEROWENestablished in NEWYORK
CITY in 1917. It was the third most popular
Harlem Renaissance African-American magazine
and, unlike THECRISISand OPPORTUNITY,was not
the official publication of an organization dedi-
cated to achieving civil rights.
The magazine, which was published for 11
years, promoted socialist philosophies and ad-
vanced its theories for racial uplift and success.
The editors sharply criticized the NATIONALAS-
SOCIATION FOR THEADVANCEMENT OFCOLORED
PEOPLE(NAACP) for what they deemed weak po-
sitions on critical issues such as segregation.
Its contributors included a number of writers
whose works appeared also in The Crisisand Oppor-
tunity. These included COUNTEE CULLEN,AN-
GELINA WELD GRIMKÉ,WALTER EVERETTE
HAWKINS,LANGSTON HUGHES,ZORA NEALE
HURSTON,PAULROBESON, and DOROTHYWEST.
Like its counterparts published by the NAACP and
the NATIONALURBANLEAGUE,The Messengerwas
an interdisciplinary and multi-genre periodical. Is-
sues featured fiction and poetry, book and drama re-
views, and essays. Contributors of nonfiction
included ALICEDUNBAR-NELSON,THOMASMIL-
LARDHENRY,CHANDLEROWEN,J. A. ROGERS, and
GEORGESCHUYLER.WALLACETHURMANwas one
of the managing editors and the person responsible
for building the literary dimensions of the journal.
According to Sondra Wilson, the journal advo-
cated a strong position on race matters. Its editors
believed in a New Negro, but one who would “no
longer turn the other cheek” (Wilson, xxiii). Histo-
rian Manning Marable suggests that The Messenger
was one of the most forthright critics of MARCUS
GARVEY. The journal contributed to the dynamic
world of African-American journalism and sparked
many debates about contemporary issues such as
PAN-AFRICANISM, black nationalism, segregation,
and unionization. The outspoken views expressed in
the periodical prompted the arrest of editors Ran-
dolph and Owen in August 1918 at an antiwar rally.
Charges against them, filed under the ESPIONAGE
ACT, were dropped because the judge expressed his
doubts that the two men were experienced and old
enough to have written and cultivated such antiwar
and antigovernment opinions.346 Meschrabpom Film Corporation