“I’d rather be a lamppost in Harlem than Governor of Georgia.” (Watson 14) Why would such a phrase become the saying amongst colored people of the early twentieth century? In Harlem, New York, before there was a revolution full of art, music, and innovation the majority of blacks were treated with disgrace. It was not until the 1920s and 30s, when the renaissance was at its prime, did the white’s attitudes slowly begin to change. W.E.B. Dubois, Langston Hughes, and Shuffle Along were just a few of the well-established Harlem people and products that earned their title and credibility in the twentieth-century. Harlem provided an area free of discrimination where whites and blacks could bond over the arts. The Harlem Renaissance led to an uprising in the black spirit encouraging the outburst of the Civil Rights Movement. What was Harlem before its renaissance? Before World War One, before the Civil War, before the Declaration of Independence, before George Washington; New York had been found as a colony. It was discovered by the Dutch and filled with a population of Germans, Irish and Jews. The first African American did not arrive in Harlem until 1905. They lived in an apartment at 31 West 133rd street (Watson 11). Soon after, this area, two square miles in northern Manhattan became a haven for Southerners, West Indians, and blacks. Harlem gained the label as the poorest, most crowded part of New York (3 & 4). These early residents left their buildings built with Victorian architecture, boulevards lined with trees, and the Harlem Opera House not knowing that the village they left would one day become an icon for the Civil Rights movement (12). Arna Bontemps, an African American poet, depicted that “The autumn of 1924 m... ... middle of paper ... ... The Harlem Renaissance. Ed. A Haights Cross Communications. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishers, 2004. Campbell, Mary Schmidt, et al. Harlem Renaissance Art of Black America. Ed. Charles Miers. New York: Abradale Press Harry N. Abrams, Inc. , 1987. Haskins, Jim. The Harlem Renaissance. Brookfield: The Millbrook Press, 1996. Howes, Kelly King. Harlem Renaissance. Ed. Christine Slovey. Detroit: UXL, 2001. Martin, Patricia Sullivan. "Tulsa Race Riot of 1921." Civil Rights in the United States. New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 2000. U.S. History in Context. Web. 11 May 2014. Moore, John Hartwell. "NAACP." Encyclopedia of Race and Racism. Vol. 2. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2008. 335-342. U.S. History in Context. Web. 11 May 2014. Watson, Steven. The Harlem Renaissance: Hub of African-American Culture, 1920-1930. First Edition. New York: Pantheon Books, 1995.
The "New Negro," the Black writers in 1920/30, tried to get out of the dominant white assimilation and practice their own tradition and identity in autonomous and active attitude. In virtue of their activities, the Harlem Renaissance became the time of sprouting the blackness. It offered the life of the black as the criterion to judge how well the democracy practices in America and to weigh the measure of the dream of America. Their vitality and artistic spirit, and dreams were so impressive that the Harlem of the 1920s has never been eluded out from the memory of American (Helbling 2).
Tolson, Claudette L. "White Supremacy." Encyclopedia of Race and Racism. Ed. Patrick L. Mason. 2nd ed. Vol. 4. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2013. 272-274. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 29 Apr. 2014.
Marable, Manning. Race, Reform, and Rebellion: The Second Reconstruction and Beyond in Black America, 1945-2006. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2007.
Hill, Laban Carrick. Harlem Stomp!: A Cultural History of the Harlem Renaissance. New York: Little, Brown, 2003. Print.
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.
During and after World War One , the Great Migration caused many African Americans to move from rural areas of the country to the northern states. Many people flocked to Harlem, New York in hopes that they too would become a part of the culture phenomenon taking place. This culture boom became known as The Harlem Renaissance. The Harlem Renaissance was an influential movement that “kindled a new black culture identity “(History.com). With the turning of the age it seemed the perfect opportunity for Afro- Americans to create a new identity.
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
John A. Kirk, History Toady volume 52 issue 2, The Long Road to Equality for African-Americans
“Poetry, like jazz, is one of those dazzling diamonds of creative industry that help human beings make sense out of the comedies and tragedies that contextualize our lives” This was said by Aberjhani in the book Journey through the Power of the Rainbow: Quotation from a Life Made Out of Poetry. Poetry during the Harlem Renaissance was the way that African Americans made sense out of everything, good or bad, that “contextualized” their lives. The Harlem Renaissance, also known as the Black Renaissance or New Negro Movement, was a cultural movement among African Americans. It began roughly after the end of World War 1 in 1918. Blacks were considered second class citizens and were treated as such. Frustrated, African Americans moved North to escape Jim Crow laws and for more opportunities. This was known as the Great Migration. They migrated to East St. Louis, Illinois, Chicago 's south side, and Washington, D.C., but another place they migrated to and the main place they focused on in the renaissance is Harlem. The Harlem Renaissance created two goals. “The first was that black authors tried to point out the injustices of racism in American life. The second was to promote a more unified and positive culture among African Americans"(Charles Scribner 's Sons). The Harlem Renaissance is a period
Harrison, Robert Pogue. “The Civil Rights Movement” . Chicago: U of Chicago, 2014. 98-111. Print.
Nabrit, James M. Jr. “The Relative Progress and the Negro in the United States: Critical Summary and Evaluation.” Journal of Negro History 32.4 (1963): 507-516. JSTOR. U of Illinois Lib., Urbana. 11 Apr. 2004
Harlem Renaissance. (2007) The Columbia Eletronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Retrieved October 7, 2007 from Web site: http://www.factmonster.com./ce6/ent/A0822748.html
The Harlem Renaissance was a major artistic movement in the early Twentieth Century. The movement impacted all types of art including music, paintings, and literature and even influenced the cultural setting to an extent. The Harlem Renaissance was an artistic revolution that took place in the 1920s where African American artists, writers, philosophers and artists sought to foster a rich black culture within the great melting pot of America. Alain Lock promoted a trend, which led to more political aggressiveness, and a self-confident perspective of identity and racial delight prompted the establishment of the idea of the “new negro.” (1) Also during the 1920s was a massive migration of African Americans
... The Harlem Renaissance was a time of growth and development for African-Americans. They wrote novels, performed in clubs, and created the genre of Jazz. However, the Renaissance was imprisoned by its flaws. Rather than celebrating the unique culture of African-American’s, it oftentimes caters to what the White Americans would want to see and hear.