Digital Projects

Dangerous Press

Dangerous Press is a digital archive of African American newspapers published between 1905 and 1929, a period shaped by the Great Migration, World War I, the Red Summer of 1919, and the Harlem Renaissance. These papers were vital institutions of information and advocacy, documenting racial violence, political struggle, and everyday Black life while amplifying voices and perspectives largely excluded from white-owned media. The project’s name reflects both their influence and the risks they faced: during World War I, federal officials labeled the Chicago Defender “the most dangerous of all Negro journals,” and its editor Robert S. Abbott, along with other Black journalists, was subjected to surveillance and censorship for challenging racial injustice. Drawing primarily from the Library of Congress Chronicling America collection and supplemented with additional sources, Dangerous Press is an open, growing resource for research, teaching, and public engagement. It currently contains over 150,000 pages from 20,000 issues from more than 40 different newspapers.

Dare You Fight: W.E.B Du Bois in The Crisis

Dare You Fight is a digital archive of the writings of W. E. B. Du Bois during his 24-year tenure (1910–1934) as founder and editor of The Crisis, the official journal of the NAACP. Du Bois was a prolific contributor—often publishing multiple editorials and articles per issue—addressing topics that ranged from Jim Crow violence and racial capitalism to Black education, culture, and everyday community life, while documenting white racism in language and imagery that remains confronting today. The project aims to digitize and make more than 1,000 of his pieces accessible; over 600 are currently available, carefully transcribed from the complete run of the journal, hosted at the Internet Archive. By preserving the original structure and style of these writings while presenting them in a searchable, open format, the project enables new scholarship on the evolution of Du Bois’s thought and invites deeper engagement with the intellectual, political, and cultural world of the early twentieth-century Black press.

Crisis & Opportunity

Crisis & Opportunity is a curated, open-access collection of largely forgotten articles by Black scholars working in and around sociology in the early twentieth century. Drawing together public-domain writings that were often marginalized or overlooked, the project highlights the interdisciplinary foundations of early sociology and recovers contributions on race, labor, migration, gender, crime, health, education, and social movements that remain strikingly relevant today. The project’s name honors two landmark journals edited by Black sociologists: The Crisis, founded and edited by W. E. B. Du Bois, and Opportunity, edited by Charles S. Johnson for the National Urban League. While acknowledging Du Bois’s central place in the discipline, Crisis & Opportunity prioritizes republishing works by other Black scholars to broaden our understanding of sociology’s intellectual history. All materials are believed to be in the public domain and are freely available to read, share, and reuse, supporting research, teaching, and a more inclusive account of the discipline’s past.

23 Fifth Avenue

23 Fifth Avenue is a digital collection of writings by early twentieth-century reformers, radicals, and social critics whose ideas shaped debates over democracy, labor, race, gender, sexuality, and social justice in the years preceding World War I. Bringing together essays, manifestos, fiction, and political commentary by figures such as feminists, socialists, anarchists, labor organizers, and Black intellectuals, the site highlights the vibrant intellectual culture of the Progressive Era and its enduring relevance. The project was created as a complement to Mary Jane Treacy’s Reacting to the Past scenario, Greenwich Village, 1913. Contributions are welcome, and all materials are presented to encourage exploration of the radical ideas that animated struggles for political change and social justice.

Crisis & Opportunity Books

Crisis & Opportunity Books produces new, carefully edited digital editions of public-domain novels from the Harlem Renaissance, expanding access to works by Black authors that have often been neglected or unevenly reproduced online. Drawing from the earliest available print editions, texts are digitized, cross-checked for accuracy, and released in clean, readable formats (Markdown, EPUB, and plain text) designed for research, teaching, and reuse. The project complements the work of Project Gutenberg, focusing in particular on authors and titles that have received limited attention.