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Harlem rennassiance
Harlem rennassiance
African american historyconclusion
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The Harlem Renaissance was the period in history from 1919 to 1940 where the beauty, strength, and intelligence of the African American people shone brightly through profound cultural and artistic expression in literature, art, and theatre. There was a transformation in African American identity and history, but more importantly for the first time in American history, Americans read the thoughts of blacks and embraced their productions, literature, and art (Gates Jr. and McKay).
The Harlem Renaissance Revisited
Renaissance is used by historians to characterize some moment in culture that once dormant, has been reawakened. The Harlem Renaissance was a response to the African American people’s social conditions. It offered affirmation of their dignity and humanity in the face of their poverty and the racism that had become a part of their everyday lives. The growth of the Harlem Renaissance was fueled by two important factors. The first factor was the migration that began during World War I. African Americans were inspired by the war to develop responsibility and self confidence that they did not have previously (Harden, Jackson, and Pitts).
The second factor was that they achieved a level of articulation that allowed them to express themselves in literature, art, and theatre due to the defiance, bitterness, and impatience that they developed during the war: the aforementioned self confidence. The writers of the Harlem Renaissance did not use the expressive literature, art, and theatre to revolt against government and society; they used it to protest the unjust operation of government and as a vehicle to bring about equality for all races (Harden, Jackson, and Pitts).
Leading Figures of the Period
The Harlem Renaissance was an ...
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...s some felt he fostered racial distrust by emphasizing the negative traits of black Americans. His peaceful politics conflicted with the militancy of younger writers, but he continued to play a major role in the Harlem Renaissance without endorsing violent action (Valade III 105).
Works Cited
Gates Jr., Henry Louis, and Nellie Y. McKay. The Norton Anthology of African American Literature. 2nd ed. New York: W.W. Norton and Company , Inc. , 2004. Print.
Harden, Renata, Christopher K. Jackson, and Dr. Berlethia J. Pitts. “Reading the Harlem Renaissance into Public Policy: Lessons from the Past to the Present.” Afro-Americans in New York Life and History (n.d): 7-36. JSTOR. Web. 7 Feb. 2014.
Valade III, Roger M. “A Black Literary Guide to the Harlem Renaissance.” The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education 11 (1996): 102-109. JSTOR. Web. 29 Jan. 2014.
The Harlem Renaissance is the name given to a period at the end of World War I through the mid-30s, in which a group of talented African-Americans managed to produce outstanding work through a cultural, social, and artistic explosion. Also known as the New Negro Movement. It is one of the greatest periods of cultural and intellectual development of a population historically repressed. The Harlem Renaissance was the rebirth of art in the African-American community mostly centering in Harlem, New York, during the 1920s. Jazz, literature, and painting emphasized significantly between the artistic creations of the main components of this impressive movement. It was in this time of great
The second was to promote a more unified and positive culture among African Americans"(Charles Scribner's Sons). The Harlem Renaissance is a period when African American writers produced numerous volumes of literature, which gave them a feeling of power and freedom.
The Harlem Renaissance was one of the most culturally important reformations in America. The Harlem Renaissance directly influenced many great civil rights leaders, and one could argue it was the foundation for the battle of equality. Many great members of the Harlem Renaissance committed their whole lives to improving race relations for themselves and for the future of the race. The strength African Americans achieved during the period after slavery through until the Harlem Renaissance provided them with enough strength to persevere. The atrocities African Americans went through during the early 20th century can only be matched by the years of enduring slavery.
The Harlem Renaissance was a cultural movement of blacks that helped changed their identity. Creative expression flourished because it was the only chance blacks had to express themselves in any way and be taken seriously. World War I and the need for workers up North were a few pull factors for the migration and eventually the Renaissance. A push was the growing discrimination and danger blacks were being faced with in the southern cities. When blacks migrated they saw the opportunity to express themselves in ways they hadn’t been able to do down south. While the Harlem Renaissance taught blacks about their heritage and whites the heritage of others, there were also negative effects. The blacks up North were having the time of their lives, being mostly free from discrimination and racism but down South the KKK was at its peak and blacks that didn’t have the opportunities to migrate experienced fatal hatred and discrimination.
The Harlem Renaissance is a term used to describe the expansion and development of African American culture and history, particularly in Harlem. It is believed to have started around 1919, after World War I, and ended around the time of the great depression. During this time period African Americans writers, artists, musicians, and poets all gathered in Harlem and created a center for African American culture.
Lewis’s viewpoint is not without it’s truths. The Harlem renaissance was overseen by a number of intellectuals such as Booker T. Washington, Marcus Garvey, and W.E.B. Dubois. Booker T. Washington‘s, a highly influential speaker of the age, words appealed to both Caucasians and African-Americans. Washington forged an interracial bridge of communication through his unique tactics in the quest for equality. He believed in more subtle ways of gaining equality through hard work, cunning, and humility. He stated, “The wisest among my race understands that the agitation of questions of social equality is the extremist folly, and that progress in the enjoyment of all the privileges that will come to us must be the result of severe and constant struggle rather than of artificial forcing.”(Salley, 15) With this statement, Washington himself denies that this new awakening in equality and arts could be forced,...
According to www.PBS.org The Harlem Renaissance was a name given to the cultural, social, and artistic explosion that took place in Harlem between the end of World War I and the middle of the 1930s. During this period Harlem was a cultural center, drawing black writers, artists, musicians, photographers, poets, and scholars. Many had come from the South, fleeing its oppressive caste system in order to find a place where they could freely express their talents. The Renaissance was more than a literary movement: It involved racial pride, fueled in part by the militancy of the "New Negro" demanding civil and political rights.
The Harlem Renaissance was an intellectual and literary period of growth promoting a new African American cultural identity in the United States. The decade between 1920 and 1930 was an extremely influential span of time for the Black culture. During these years Blacks were able to come together and form a united group that expressed a desire for enlightenment. This renaissance allowed Blacks to have a uniform voice in a society based upon intellectual growth. The front-runners of this revival were extremely focused on cultural growth through means of intellect, literature, art and music. By using these means of growth, they hoped to destroy the pervading racism and stereotypes suffocating the African American society and yearned for racial and social integration. Many Black writers spoke out during this span of time with books proving their natural humanity and desire for equality.
The Harlem Renaissance, originally known as “the New Negro Movement”, was a cultural, social, and artistic movement during the 1920’s that took place in Harlem. This movement occurred after the World War I and drew in many African Americans who wanted to escape from the South to the North where they could freely express their artistic abilities. This movement was known as The Great Migration. During the 1920’s, many black writers, singers, musicians, artists, and poets gained success including Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes, Marcus Garvey, and W.E.B. Du Bois. These creative black artists made an influence to society in the 1920’s and an impact on the Harlem Renaissance.
2. The African American culture blossomed during the Harlem Renaissance, particularly in creative arts, and the most influential movement in African American literary history. Embracing literary, musical, theatrical, and visual arts, participants sought to reconceptualize “the Negro” apart from the white stereotypes that had influenced black peoples’ relationship to their heritage and to each other. They also sought to break free of Victorian moral values and bourgeois shame about aspects of their lives that might, as seen by whites, reinforce racist beliefs. Never dominated by a particular school of thought but rather characterized by intense debate, the movement laid the groundwork for all later African American literature and had an enormous
During the Great Migration, an influx of African Americans fled to Northern cities from the South wishing to flee oppression and the harshness of life as sharecroppers. They brought about a new, black social and cultural identity- a period that later became known as the Harlem Renaissance. Originally the Harlem Renaissance was referred to as the “New Negro Movement” (Reader’s Companion). It made a huge impact on urban life. The Harlem Renaissance played a major role in African American art, music, poetic writing styles, culture and society.
The Harlem Renaissance was a period of great rebirth for African American people and according to the online encyclopedia Wikipedia, the “Harlem Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned the 1920s and 1930s.” Wikipedia also indicates that it was also known as the “Negro Movement, named after the 1925 Anthology by Alan Locke.” Blacks from all over America and the Caribbean and flocked to Harlem, New York. Harlem became a sort of “melting pot” for Black America. Writers, artists, poets, musicians and dancers converged there spanning a renaissance. The Harlem Renaissance was also one of the most important chapters in the era of African American literature. This literary period gave way to a new type of writing style. This style is known as “creative literature.” Creative literature enabled writers to express their thoughts and feelings about various issues that were of importance to African Americans. These issues include racism, gender and identity, and others that we...
3. Dictionary of Literary Biography, Volume 51: Afro-American Writers from the Harlem Renaissance to 1940. A Bruccoli Clark Layman Book. Edited by Trudier Harris, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The Gale Group, 1987. pp. 133-145.
Langston Hughes, a primary voice of the Harlem Renaissance in the 1920's, was known as "The Poet Laureate of Harlem". Hughes had pride in his black heritage, strong political beliefs, and the will to survive in a society where racial equality had to be fought for. Hughes' strength and determination shine through his poetry, he does not hide the fact that he lived with racism, but talks of his strength and to st...
From Slavery to Freedom: Africans in the Americas. (2007). The 'Secondary' of the 'Secondary' of the 'Secon Association for the Study of African American Life and History. Retrieved October 7, 2007 from Web site: http://www.asalh.org/. Harlem Renaissance (1997-2007).