The Crusaderย was a blackย communistย magazineย established byย journalistย Cyril Briggsย initially with the financial support ofย West Indianย merchant Anthony Crawford in September 1918.ย Briggs establishedย The Crusaderย in response to and in support of President Woodrow Wilsonโs Fourteen Points that called for the โimpartial adjustment of all colonial claims.โย Briggs, formerly of theย Amsterdam News, embracedย Africaโs right to self-determination and dedicated the magazineโs credo to โAfrica for the Africansโ and to a โrenaissance of Negro power and culture throughout the world.โย ย The Crusaderย published articles based onย African nationalismย within a Progressive context which endorsed independent African economic development within the free market, and an end toย Europeanย and Western colonization in Africa.
In December 1918, in exchange for financial support,ย The Crusaderย became the official magazine of George Well Parkerโs Hamitic League of the World, a pan-African nationalist group.ย Parker, a businessman, naturopath, and Afrocentricity advocate, originally from Omaha,ย Nebraska, usedย The Crusaderas a vehicle to express his views.ย He wrote articles that proclaimed that Africa was the cradle of civilization and argued that the black race was superior to other races.
By 1919, reflecting Briggsโs shifting ideology,ย The Crusaderย had turned against Wilsonโs Fourteen Points and began to link colonization andย racial oppressionย to capitalism.ย And, in response to increased racial tensions and violence against black people,ย The Crusaderย took a more militaristic tone and advocated for the creation of a separate armed organization of African Americans for self-defense.ย In October 1919,ย The Crusaderannounced the formation of theย African Blood Brotherhood (ABB)ย and by the end 1920, citing antisemitism and Briggsโs increased commitment to the anti-racism of international Marxism and Communism, the Hamitic League had disappeared fromย The Crusaderโs masthead.
In June of 1921,ย The Crusaderย became the official journal of the ABB and promoted Communism as the solution to racial and economic inequality.ย This period also saw in increase in personal attacks by Briggs againstย Marcus Garvey, leader of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) which was staunchly anti-communist.ย Soon the journal became almost exclusively devoted to anti-Garvey invective.ย By 1922, the bitter rivalry between Briggs and Garvey had reached a climax and prominent black Communists, such asย Claude McKay, recommended to the Comintern (the governing body of the international Communist movement), to withdraw its financial support toย The Crusaderย as the official black Communist Party journal.ย Without stable financial support,ย The Crusaderย ceased publication in February 1922.
