and coordinator for DuBois. She was responsible
for arranging the details relating to his activities
and contacts on the West Coast. In 2000 her son
Glenn Nance donated a set of 107 letters written
by DuBois to his mother, to the Bancroft Library at
the University of California at Berkeley.
Bibliography
Ethel Nance Papers, Bancroft Library, University of
California at Berkeley; Special Collections, Fisk
University.
Lewis, David Levering. W. E. B. DuBois: The Fight for
Equality and the American Century, 1919–1963.New
York: Henry Holt & Company, 2000.
Robbins, Richard. Sidelines Activist: Charles S. Johnson
and the Struggle for Civil Rights.Jackson: University
Press of Mississippi, 1996.
Nation, The
An important weekly political magazine. The Na-
tion,founded in 1865, provided more comprehen-
sive coverage of race-related issues during the
Harlem Renaissance than any other periodical of
its kind.
The periodical was established by abolitionists.
Its first editor, Irish-born Edwin Godkin, declared
his intent to use the magazine to support progres-
sive issues such as women’s suffrage and African-
American civil rights. Writer and journalist
William Dean Howells was one of the most fre-
quent contributors to the magazine, and scholars
suggest that it was his engaging writing that
boosted circulation.
Editors of the magazine included descendants
of William Lloyd Garrison, the tireless BOSTON
abolitionist and editor of The Liberator.Henry Vil-
lard, a Garrison son-in-law and wealthy business-
man, purchased the publication and the New York
Evening Postin 1881. His son OSWALDGARRISON
VILLARDbecame the editor and owner in 1918.
Villard’s tenure lasted until 1932. His membership
in the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE AD-
VANCEMENT OFCOLOREDPEOPLEinfluenced his
editorial decisions at The Nation.The magazine re-
ported on LYNCHINGs (including shocking eyewit-
ness reports), race riots, civil rights activism, and
African-American efforts to secure economic and
political stability. It also published book reviews by
leading activists such as WALTERWHITE. Villard
also opposed the accommodationist philosophies of
BOOKERT. WASHINGTON. Such ideas, accord to
Villard, threatened the fight for African-American
equality and were in direct contrast to the honest
and forthright antislavery and abolitionist activism
of the 19th century.
In later years, editors like Freda Kirchwey
maintained the magazine’s tradition of incisive, so-
cially conscious journalism. During Kirchwey’s
tenure, The Nation was especially outspoken
against fascism, Nazism, McCarthyism, and the in-
timidatory campaigns of the House Un-American
Activities Committee.Bibliography
Pages fromThe Nation: Selections from the Contributions
of the Editorial Staff for the Decade 1918–28.New
York: The Tenth Anniversary Committee of Nation
Readers, 1928.
De Borchgrave, Alexandra Villard, and John Cullen. Vil -
lard: The Life and Times of an American Titan.New
York: Doubleday, 2001.
Villard, Oswald Garrison. Fighting Years: Memoirs of a
Liberal Editor.New York: Harcourt, Brace and
Company, 1939.National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People(NAACP)
The oldest civil rights organization in the United
States. Established in 1909, the National Associa-
tion for the Advancement of Colored People
(NAACP) became a leading champion of African-
American social justice, civil and political rights,
and social and economic equality. The multiracial
group of founders included W. E. B. DUBOIS,
MARYWHITE OVINGTON,IDAB. WELLSBAR-
NETT, and OSWALDGARRISONVILLARD.
Morefield Storey was the first president of the
organization. JOELSPINGARN, the philanthropist
after whom the NAACP named its most presti-
gious annual prize, succeeded him in 1929.
Other founding members and officers included
influential public intellectuals, scholars, and ac-
tivists. Oswald Garrison Villard, owner/editor of
THENATIONand a descendant of William Lloyd
Garrison, was appointed treasurer. In 1910 W. E. B.
DuBois, a highly regarded scholar and an AT-362 Nation, The