Booker T. Washington's Life During The Harlem Renaissance

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The Harlem Renaissance The Harlem renaissance represents an enduring hope that free people can claim their birthright. (2) This was a major event in the African American community because it exposed harsh treatment in the south through Jim Crow laws when they moved to the north, furthermore this movement also helped with political equality. (3-4,40,12-15) Harlem, in the heart of Manhattan, was the nicest place the negro people were ever allowed to live; it was a place that continued to grow with their people and the jobs they were able to acquire payed them wages that they could never dreamed of receiving.(47) This renaissance was an artistic and political outpouring during the 1920s through the late 1930s, centered in New York, but reaching around the globe. (1) Places such as Boston, Chicago, …show more content…

Washington, but quickly changed during the blacks huge migration to the north that was precipitated by World War 1.(4) The black population in the south, if they could find work, were mostly sharecroppers and were treated badly no matter what they ended up doing.(3) Harlem was a place of refuge for the blacks, the people had never lived somewhere so nice or modern.(46-47) The blacks moved in and this, for whites, was an incentive to leave; their homes were losing value with each black person that moved in.(49) This drove down the cost of homes making it even more appealing to blacks to move into the area. (49) Since the war in Europe was causing labor shortages in the north, the country looked to the large labor force of blacks in the south.(51) This caused even more of an influx of blacks to the north. (53) All of this in turn caused their lives to become better, they had more money and some nicer places to

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