Browse Items (55 total)

This essay was written by University of Richmond student, Richard Cook, who chastises the university for its continuation of its segregation policy. Cook's main argument is that while the university prides itself on being an advanced forward-looking…

In this play by the Messenger’s then-editor-in-chief, Louise Dinwiddie, two Englishmen are traveling in “the Orient” in a search for collectables. One, Jade, sees China as a beautiful and mysterious location, while the other, Michael, complains about…

This essay, written by freshman John E. Donaldson, was the opening piece in the Fall 1957 edition of The Messenger. In it, Donaldson describes his hesitance toward forced integration. He begins his argument by asserting that he is "not defending the…

The narrator of this poem expresses his identity as part of a "colossal being" of black people, preferring the collective 'we' to the singular 'I.' He explores slavery as "the torture that was endured for years and still / Silently exists today"…

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…

This picture of an African-American cook was paired with a Messenger piece titled "Slater Report" on the Slater dining facility and its staff. The picture fails to have a caption, and therefore the cook remains nameless.

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 sketch preceding the Campus Notes section of The Messenger depicts two Asian people: one is dressed in a gown with a sword on his lap as the other, dressed as a clown, is jumping over or balancing on his head. This illustration is unrelated to…

These illustrations, one of a white woman, one of a black woman, one of a white man, and one of a black man, accompany quotes from social scientists denying any difference in intelligence based on race. These statements conclude that the belief that…

This cartoon shows a white ventriloquist agreeing to his sentiment of, "We were all mighty happy until we were interfered with... Weren't we?" with a blackface-wearing ventriloquist's dummy. This refers to forced integration that occurred in public…