 It was notable for helping strengthen African-American intellectual and political identity in the age of Jim Crow.Through the 1920s it also noted the success of blacks who were reaching the middle class in business and the professions, publishing a series of essays known as "These 'Colored' United States", submitted by writers across the country.Toward the end of 1916, A. Philip Randolph and Chandler Owen dropped out of college, joined the Socialist Party, and gave soapbox orations on street corners around Harlem.