Harlem Renaissance and Jessie Redmon Fauset

Originally referred to as the “New Negro Movement”, the Harlem Renaissance was a cultural movement during the early twentieth century. It was started by the Great Migration of blacks to the North during World War I. This period resulted in many people coming forth and contributing their talents to the world, inspiring many. One of the poets of this time, Jessie Redmon Fauset, was one of those who wrote about the life of blacks and life in general during this time period. She used her good and bad past experiences as influences for her works.

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.

Harlem soon became known as the “capital of black America” as the amount of blacks in this community was very substantial. Many of the inhabitants of this area were artists, entrepreneurs and black advocates with the urge to showcase their abilities and talents. The ...

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...t always work for her. These experiences inspired her to write her second novel Plum Bun which was about a woman trying to pass for white. In her poetry readers can tell how frustrated she was with the injustice that blacks received. In her poem Oblivion she speaks on death and says, “I should never hear the note of jealousy or hate” after she is dead. She calls oblivion “the shroud and envelope of happiness.”

Overall, Jessie Redmon Fauset was one of the many great artists during the Harlem Renaissance that inspired many with her strong words of wisdom and truth. She wouldn’t have been able to do this without the Harlem Renaissance and the great inspiration it put on blacks to express themselves in ways that weren’t thought of before. The Harlem Renaissance gave her a chance to speak the words she was holding inside and she was noted for her honesty and humbleness.