Harlem Renaissance Essay

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Recommended: The birth of the Harlem Renaissance

The Harlem Renaissance gave African American women new opportunities in literature. “The Harlem Renaissance was the name given to the cultural, social, and artistic explosion that took place in Harlem between the end of World War 1 and the middle of the 1930s.” (Wormser) It was a challenge for women poets during the Harlem Renaissance because they were both black and women. (Walton) Jessie Fauset, Georgia Douglas Johnson, Regina Anderson, and Nella Larson all played important roles in the Harlem Renaissance. (Lewis) These women inspired many generations of women to come. (Walton)

Jessie Fauset was born in 1882 in New Jersey. She was one of the first African American women to attend Cornell University. (Walton) Jessie Fauset was literary editor of The Crisis, a magazine started by W.E.B. Du Bois, and hosted salons in her home. She also arranged for the first publication of work by Langston Hughes. (Lewis) In addition to working for the The Crisis, Fauset was co-editor for The Brownie’s Book. The Brownie’s Book taught African American children about their heritage. (Lewis) While still working she managed to keep writing poetry of her own. Fauset’s poetry had themes of romance and racial identity. (Walton) She also wrote novels and articles which is what she is most famous for. (Lewis) Some of Fauset’s most famous novels are Plum Bum, Chinaberry Tree, and Comedy: American Style.(Walton) Jessie Fauset died on April 30, 1961, she was 79 years old.

Georgia Douglas Johnson was born on September 10 around the year 1877 in Atlanta Georgia. Johnson published her first poem in 1916, on NAACP’s Crisis Magazine. (Collier) Georgia Douglas Johnson published The Heart of a Women in 1918. These poems reflected themes that were meaningful to...

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... Anderson helped found the Krigwa Players with W.E.B. Du Bois. She helped it find a home in the basement of the 135th Street Public Library in Harlem, and Anderson wrote several plays under her pseudonym Ursula or Ursala Trelling.”(Lewis) She also worked with groups like the National Council of Women and the National Urban League. (Lewis) She later ended up retiring from the New York Public Library in 1967. (Lewis) “Regina Anderson was one of ten African American women whose contributions were recognized at the 1939 World’s Fair in New York.” (Lewis) Regina Anderson died in Ossining, New York in 1993.

The Harlem Renaissance started a legacy that influenced many generations of African American Writers to come. (Academy of the American Poets) Because of the Harlem Renaissance African American women were allowed to express themselves and their work freely. (Wormser)

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