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Opportunity: A Journal of Negro Life
Begun January 1923 as the official organ of the
National Urban League, the journal Opportunity
continued until 1949. The title of the journal came
from the league’s slogan: “Not alms, but opportu-
nity.” The role of Opportunity, according to Eugene
Kinckle Jones, the first executive secretary of the
league, in his first-issue editorial, was to try to set
down interestingly but without sugar-coating or
generalization the findings of careful scientific sur-
veys and the facts gathered from research, under-
taken not to prove pre-conceived notions but to lay
bare Negro life as it is” (5).
Unlike The CRISIS, Opportunity never became
self-sustaining, and its circulation peaked in its
early years at around 11,000. Like The Crisis, how-
ever, Opportunity had a strong editor, CHARLES S.
JOHNSON, who was capable of attracting unknown
African-American literary talent to its pages.
Under the editorship of Johnson, Opportunity
made a significant contribution to the birth of the
HARLEM RENAISSANCE. He was among those, in-
cluding JAMES WELDON JOHNSON, W. E. B. DUBOIS,
and ALAIN LOCKE, who understood that a race ca-
pable of boasting its own literary and artistic lights
would be able to break existing barriers—for those
who would come later and for those whose talent
at the time might have gone unsung.
Opportunity did not seriously challenge The
Crisis, nor was it intended that it should. What

Johnson offered, however, that was creative and

fresh were dinners that brought together in a so-

cial setting talented young writers with more es-

tablished ones who had wealthy white patrons and

well-connected white publishers. Johnson was the

host of the New York Civic Club’s dinner on March

21, 1924, which most critics consider the formal

launching of the New Negro movement. Among

those present were JESSE REDMON FAUSET, COUNTEE

CULLEN, Gwendolyn Bennett, LANGSTON HUGHES,

and ALAIN LOCKE.

Johnson’s next idea was to establish the Op-

portunity literary awards contests. He sought dis-

tinguished judges, such as Fannie Hurst, James

Weldon Johnson, CARL VAN VECHTEN, Eugene

O’Neill, and Robert Benchley, who readily agreed

to participate. First, second, and third prizes were

awarded in the following categories: short sto-

ries, poetry, plays, essays, and personal experience

sketches. The top prize was $100 and the least was

$5. To fund all the awards in the first year, $440 was

needed, a considerable sum in the 1920s. In sub-

sequent years, Johnson found a patron in Casper

Holstein, a kingpin mobster from the West Indies

who controlled the numbers racket in Harlem.

The response was overwhelming: 723 entries the

first year and more than 1200 the following year.

For three years (1925–1927), Johnson hosted

dinners to announce and award the contest win-

ners. Johnson, using Opportunity as his means,