Browse Items (55 total)

The two characters in this story, an unnamed woman and unnamed man, argue over the man's desire to move to Africa. The man claims that everyone who visits the continent "wish[es] they had come before the white man, or before colonization" and…

In this short story, an American soldier named Taylor is shot and killed after enduring torture in an unspecified Asian POW camp. Taylor is reincarnated multiple times before the story of his shooting is told, in which a military commander named…

In this short story, a law student named Winston Kingstone Manners the Fourth does cocaine and finds a book that contains his life story. Moments in his past are described as, "The beaten black boy, the date-raped freshman, and the threatened…

This short story is a retelling of the myth of Perseus and Medusa, written in black American dialect by a white student. The young women in the tale are oversexualized and the narrator exhibits colorism by referring to Polydectes's "high yaller"…

This short story from the February 1941 Messenger details the passing of a black woman named Bess. Bess's dress is described as being scant and attention-grabbing, and an unnamed man urges her to marry someone who is "her own kind" and criticizes her…

This sketch (a brief, abstract descriptive poem) begins with the "fear of a black" that is then related to the prevention of typhoid, which "results in the American Army." The three words of "Negro / Mister / Coffee" follow the words "They mystify."…

This poem is narrated by someone who feels left behind by a charismatic politician. References are made to the politician's constituents as being "scraps of self" and asking too much by expecting the politician to make their burdens his or her own,…

This poem from the Spring 1990 issue of the Messenger features an assumedly French female student who corrects a classmate's pronunciation of the word 'femme fatale.' Another classmate then reminds her that they aren't in France. The narrator then…

In this poem, the narrator claims that Jewish people always live in sukkot (plural form of sukkah), defined at the end of the piece as "a small tent built for a week of meals and prayer to celebrate the Jewish harvest holiday of Succoth." It…

The author of this letter, who is the feature editor of the Citadel literary magazine, advertises their "Parade of Southern Belles" feature, which he asserts "is not a beauty contest, but more of a parade or exhibit of Southern girls." He then asks…