from fellow political editors such as MAXEAST-
MANof The Masses.
The magazine had a modest readership of fewer
than 1,000 readers during its first year. In 1915,
however, circulation numbers exploded and reached
15,000.
The magazine had lost its founder, Willard
Straight, during the devastating influenza epidemic
of 1918. Straight’s widow, Dorothy, however, re-
mained committed to the journal and worked tire-
lessly to cultivate contributors and to maintain the
financial stability of the journal. During the 1930s,
Bruce Bliven served as editor. He was succeeded by
Henry Wallace, a dynamic figure who increased
the readership to 100,000 before leaving the post
to run for the presidency of the United States. In
1947, Michael Whitney Straight, son of the jour-
nal’s founders, was appointed editor.
During the Harlem Renaissance, the journal
published dynamic writers such as ERIC WAL-
ROND,WALLACETHURMAN, the writer and enter-
prising founder of several literary magazines, and
HUBERTHARRISON, the outspoken labor organizer
and NEGROWORLDeditor. Other contributors of
note included Willa Cather, John Dos Passos, and
H. L. MENCKEN.
Bibliography
Peterson, Merrill D. Coming of Age with the New Repub-
lic, 1938–1950.Columbia: University of Missouri
Press, 1999.
Seideman, David. The New Republic: A Voice of Modern
Liberalism.New York: Praeger, 1986.
Newsome, Mary Effie Lee (1885–1979)
A native of PHILADELPHIA, Newsome became a
writer of children’s stories and literature. Born
Mary Effie Lee on 19 January 1885, she was the
daughter of Mary Elizabeth Ashe Lee and Ben-
jamin Franklin Lee. Her father was a journalist and
bishop, who also served as president of WILBER-
FORCE UNIVERSITY. Her father’s work in the
church resulted in the family’s frequent relocation
to cities such as Wilberforce, Ohio, and Waco,
Texas. Her older brother, Benjamin, born while the
family was living in Wilberforce, Ohio, went on to
become a member of the NATIONAL URBAN
LEAGUE, an active member of the YOUNGMEN’s
CHRISTIANASSOCIATION, and the executive sec-
retary of the Civic League in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Effie Lee attended several universities be-
tween the years 1901 and 1914. These included
Wilberforce University between 1901 and 1903,
OBERLINCollege for one year from 1904 through
1905, and the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts
for an additional year in 1907. She appears to have
completed her college education at the UNIVER-
SITY OFPENNSYLVANIAin 1914, but as biographers
Lorraine Roses and Ruth Randolph note, there is
no evidence that she graduated from any of these
institutions.
In August 1920 Lee married Henry Nesby
Newsome, a widowed African Methodist Episcopal
minister, president of the Safety Banking and Re-
alty Company in Mobile, Alabama, and father of
six children. The couple soon settled in Birming-
ham, Alabama. There, Mary Lee Newsome orga-
nized the Boys of Birmingham Club in 1925. The
couple eventually moved back to Wilberforce,
Ohio. Newsome, who had a passion for writing lit-
erature for children, worked as an elementary
school librarian.
Newsome began publishing before her mar-
riage. Her poems began appearing in THECRISISas
early as 1917. She continued to publish with the
official journal of the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
FOR THEADVANCEMENT OFCOLOREDPEOPLEfor
almost two decades. On occasion she used the
pseudonym “Johnson Ward”; it was under this
name that she won an honorable mention in 1926
for the poem “The Bird in the Cage” that she sub-
mitted to a Crisisliterary contest.
Her poems, which tended to focus exclusively
on children, their experiences, and family relation-
ships, were diverse in form and setting. She devel-
oped caring narratives about young people who
managed to overcome the racism of their worlds
and who were capable of loving sincerely despite
hardships. In addition, Newsome helped to ad-
vance THECRISISto young children of color. She
authored “The Little Page,” a regular feature that
included informative columns about diverse sub-
jects, her own poetry, letters from children, and
even the submissions that she received from some
of her young readers.
Newsome published two books, Our Young
People’s Book of Versein 1923 and GLADIOLAGAR-384 Newsome, Mary Effie Lee