The Harlem Renaissance Era

The Harlem neighborhood in New York City became home to more than 200,000 African-American migrants by the 1920s. During World War I, the population of African-Americans in Chicago increased by 150% and in Philadelphia by 500 percent. In 1920’s , an artistic and intellectual movement known as the Harlem Renaissance was created in

• R Miller. “The Art and Imagination of Langston Hughes.” The University Press of Kentucky, 2015. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=sso&db=e900xww&AN=938376&site=eds-live • Bernard, Patrick S. “A ‘Cipher Language’: Thomas W. Talley and Call-and-Response during the Harlem Renaissance.”

The Harlem Renaissance was a period of great cultural growth in the black community. It is accepted that it started in 1918 and lasted throughout the 1930s. Though named the ‘Harlem’ Renaissance, it was a country-wide phenomenon of pride and development among black Americans, the likes of which had never existed in such grand scale. Among the varying political actions and movements for equality, a surge of new art appeared: musical, visual, and even theatre. With said surge, many of the most well-known black authors, poets, musicians and actors rose to prevalence including Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, Louis Armstrong, and Eulalie Spence.

The Harlem Renaissance is a term that encompasses an intellectual and literary movement of the 1920s and 1930s. A renowned scholar, Alain Locke, argued that “Negro life is seizing its first chances for group expression and self determination” (1926). Moreover, The Harlem Renaissance refers to the re-birth of African Americans who needed “an affirmation of their dignity and humanity in the face of poverty and racism” (Gates, 1997: 929). In their research, Shukla and Banerji state the the Harlem Renaissance “can be considered as the spring of Afro-American voice” that previously remained unheard and unnoticed (2012). For the first time black musicians and artists came to the fore of attention and started to be praised for their work.

The Harlem Renaissance was a period in American history, which occurred in the 1920s in Harlem, New York. The cultural movement was an opportunity for African Americans to celebrate their heritage through intellectual and artistic works. Langston Hughes, a famous poet, was a product of the Harlem Renaissance. One notable piece of literature by Hughes is “Dream Deferred”. However, the discussion of African American culture isn’t limited to the 1920s.

Harlem Renaissance “What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun? Or fester like a sore-- And then run?” (Hughes). These lines from Langston Hughes’s Harlem explain the struggle African Americans faced in finding culture and identity after slavery was abolished.

With new music on the rise, the interest in theatrical productions and musicals had greatly increased. There was more freedom and accessibility in art, and Black artists began to be able to show their pride in their identities and experiences (“Harlem Renaissance” National Gallery of America). The Harlem Renaissance made a massive change in people’s opinions, and the ways that they shared and experienced

During the 1920s and 1920s, African-American culture came to the forefront of the American art industry. The interest was not limited to literature but included music and movies as well. Jazz music gained traction during the Prohibition Era from underground speakeasies in the city and African-American actors and actresses such as Josephine Baker and Caterina Jarboro rose to popularity. However, the Renaissance typically refers to the rise of African-American literature during this period. Although African-American authors around the world rose to popularity, the center of the movement was in the namesake neighborhood of Harlem, a predominantly black neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City.

The Roaring Twenties During the early twentieth century, millions of African Americans were migrating to the Northern United States after World War one, this became known as the Great Migration. These African Americans were escaping discrimination and poverty, from the South. Correspondingly, they were suffering difficult living and working conditions. Moreover, African Americans were in search of opportunities and the chance of higher wages, it became the most important population shift in history.

The Harlem Renaissance was a black literary and art movement that began in Harlem, New York. Migrants from the South came to Harlem with new ideas and a new type of music called Jazz. Harlem welcomed many African Americans who were talented. Writers in the Harlem Renaissance had separated themselves from the isolated white writers which made up the “lost generation” The formation of a new African American cultural identity is what made the Harlem Renaissance and the Lost Generation unique in American culture because it influenced white literacy and it was a sense of freedom for African Americans.

American society and culture has transformed vastly with respect to racial affairs and the perception of minority ethnic groups since slavery, a process in which the Harlem Renaissance contributed an instrumental role. According to the text, while slavery was abolished, racial equality had yet to be achieved with segregation and systematic racism still prominently remaining in areas of society, particularly in the South, thus portraying the Harlem Renaissance as a necessity for the pursuit of complete, multiracial egalitarianism. With the Harlem Renaissance, black identity increased and black culture became more commemorated, fostering a heightened sense of confidence and conviction in their attempts to equalize racial circumstances that manifested in the subsequent Civil Rights Movement. Furthermore, the Harlem Renaissance assembled a community of black intellectuals, facilitating the exchange of civil rights beliefs that disseminated throughout the country, providing a foundation for the endeavors to elevate black people to the position of the dominant

The representatives of Harlem Renaissance believed in democratic reforms, they thought that art and literature were means of changes and impact on white people. They believed in themselves and assisted to political organizations of that time – “National Association for the Advancement of Colored

The Harlem Renaissance was a movement that reflected the culture of African Americans in an artistic way during the 1920’s and the 30’s. Many African Americans who participated in this movement showed a different side of the “Negro Life,” and rejected the stereotypes that were forced on themselves. The Harlem Renaissance was full of artists, musicians, and writers who wrote about their thoughts, especially on discrimination towards blacks, such as Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, and Langston Hughes. The Harlem Renaissance was an influential and exciting movement, and influenced others to fight for what they want and believed in. The Harlem Renaissance was the start of the Civil Rights Movement.

The Harlem Renaissance is a beautiful and exciting period of American Literature. Throughout class this semester we have talked about America’s literary identity crisis during and after the civil war. We have seen authors struggle with the questions of who are we and what should American literature look and sound like? As we step forward in to the Harlem Renaissance a new group of authors and artist emerge who know exactly who they are and what they have to say about life in America. “America” by Claude McKay and “I, Too” by Langston Hughes are great examples of this, they are similar in theme while written in two very different styles varying in structure and language.

“The Harlem Renaissance was viewed primarily as a literary movement centered in Harlem and growing out of the black migration and the emergence of Harlem as the premier black metropolis in the United States.” (Wintz 2015) It was a time for culture and celebration. “Originally called the New Negro Movement, the Harlem Renaissance was a literary and intellectual flowering that fostered a new black cultural identity in the 1920s and ‘30s.” (Rowen) Alain Locke, who was a critic and teacher, summed up the essence of the Harlem Renaissance in 1926 declaring through art, “Negro life is seizing its first chances for group expression and self-determination.” Locke also called it “The Spiritual Coming of Age.”