James W. Ivy (1901 – 1974) was an African American educator and journalist. He edited the

NAACP The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E.&nb ...

's magazine ''

The Crisis ''The Crisis'' is the official magazine of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). It was founded in 1910 by W. E. B. Du Bois (editor), Oswald Garrison Villard, J. Max Barber, Charles Edward Russell, Kelly Mi ...

'' from 1950 until retirement in 1966.

Life

Ivy was born in

Danville, Virginia Danville is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States, located in the Southside Virginia region and on the fall line of the Dan River. It was a center of tobacco production and was an area of Confederate activity ...

on May 16, 1901, the son of William and Nannie Ivy. He was educated at public schools in Danville before gaining a B.Sc. from Virginia Union University in 1925. He later did graduate study at

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

. In 1926 Ivy began teaching English and French at the all-black Union High School in

Hampton, Virginia Hampton () is an independent city (United States), independent city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the population was 137,148. It is the List ...

. He continued teaching at high schools in

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

and Virginia, and from 1934 to 1939 taught English at the Hampton Institute. Meanwhile, in 1930 he joined ''The Crisis'' as book review editor under

W. E. B. Du Bois William Edward Burghardt Du Bois ( ; February 23, 1868 – August 27, 1963) was an American-Ghanaian sociologist, socialist, historian, and Pan-Africanist civil rights activist. Born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, Du Bois grew up in ...

's' editorship. He continued working at the publication under Roy Wilkins as editor until 1942. In 1944 he married Helen Marshall from

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

. They had no children. From 1945 to 1946 he was managing editor of the New York progressive monthly ''

Common Sense ''Common Sense'' is a 47-page pamphlet written by Thomas Paine in 1775–1776 advocating independence from Great Britain to people in the Thirteen Colonies. Writing in clear and persuasive prose, Paine collected various moral and political argu ...

''. In 1946 he returned to ''The Crisis'' as assistant editor, and succeeded Wilkins as editor in 1950. Ivy spoke several languages, and as ''Crisis'' editor was committed to coverage of the global black community. He later summarised his internationalist creed: "I believe American Negroes should recognise similarities between their problems and those of blacks in other parts of the world". Together with

Horace Mann Bond Horace Mann Bond (November 8, 1904 – December 21, 1972) was an American historian, college administrator, social science researcher and the father of civil-rights leader Julian Bond. He earned a master's and doctorate from University of Ch ...

Mercer Cook Will Mercer Cook (March 30, 1903 – October 4, 1987), popularly known as Mercer Cook, was a diplomat and professor. He was the first American ambassador to the Gambia after it became independent, appointed in 1965 while also still serving a ...

John A. Davis John Alexander Davis (born October 26, 1961) is an American film director, writer, animator, voice actor and composer known for his work both in stop-motion animation as well as computer animation, live action and live-action/CGI hybrids. Davis ...

and William T. Fontaine, Ivy was amongst the African American delegates to the First

Congress of Black Writers and Artists The Congress of Black Writers and Artists ( French: ''Congrès des écrivains et artistes noirs''; originally called the Congress of Negro Writers and Artists) was a meeting of leading black intellectuals for the purpose of addressing the issues of ...

in Paris in 1956. The group, together with

Thurgood Marshall Thurgood Marshall (July 2, 1908 – January 24, 1993) was an American civil rights lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1967 until 1991. He was the Supreme Court's first African-A ...

and

Duke Ellington Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and leader of his eponymous jazz orchestra from 1923 through the rest of his life. Born and raised in Washington, D.C., Ellington was based ...

, formed the

American Society of African Culture The American Society of African Culture (AMSAC) was an organization of African-American writers, artists, and scholars. The society was founded as a result of the Congress of Negro Writers and Artists in 1956 based on the idea of the French '' :f ...

in December 1956. Ivy retired in May 1966. He died of cancer on April 11, 1974 at his home on La Salle Street,

Morningside Heights Morningside Heights is a neighborhood on the West Side of Upper Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded by Morningside Drive to the east, 125th Street to the north, 110th Street to the south, and Riverside Drive to the west. Morningside ...

, New York City.

Writing

* 'Fifty years of progress in literature'. ''Pittsburgh Courier'', 1950. * 'The Wisdom of the Haitian Peasant: or some Haitian proverbs considered', ''Negro History Bulletin'', Vol. 4, No. 9 (1951), pp. 197, 209-10. * ''Present-day Brazilian Race Relations : a brief bibliography with an introduction''. New York, 1958.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ivy, James W. 1901 births 1974 deaths American journalists 20th-century African-American writers 20th-century American journalists NAACP activists American magazine editors