The Harlem Renaissance: The New Negro Movement

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The Harlem Renaissance, also known as “The New Negro Movement” was a cultural movement that spanned the1920’s. The Harlem Renaissance was a defining moment in African American literature causing an outburst of creative activity in black writers and artists in New York City. The Harlem Renaissance was influenced by the migration of African Americans from the South seeking better opportunities for themselves.
A black man named Charles Spurgeon Johnson who was the editor for the National Urban League magazine encouraged and supported black writers and artists who were part of the Harlem Renaissance. Charles’ magazine later became the leading voice of black culture. Four famous writers and poets of the Harlem Renaissance are; Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, Claude McKay, and Arnaud Bontemps.
Langston Hughes is one of the most famous poets of the Harlem Renaissance. He was born in Mississippi in 1902 and later moved to Ohio where he attended Central High School. When Hughes graduated high school he went to Mexico to visit his father and while crossing the Mississippi River he was inspired to write “The Negro Speaks of Rivers”, which was his first published poem when he was eighteen years old. When Hughes returned to the United States in 1924 the Harlem Renaissance was in “full swing”. In 1925 at the age of twenty-three Hughes received an award for his poem “The Weary Blues”, Hughes was famous for incorporating blues and jazz rhymes into his poetry, which is what he did in his poem “The Weary Blues”. Hughes was at a banquet where he received an award for his poem “The Weary Blues” and was asked by a man named Carl Van Vechten if he had enough poems to make a book. Hughes said yes and Van Vechten promised that he would find Hughes ...

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...qual as everyone else and they have the same rights. If it were not for the Harlem Renaissance literature may not be what it is today.

Works Cited

Hardy, P. Stephen, and Sheila Jackson Hardy. Extra Ordinary People of the Harlem Renaissance. Canada: Grolier, 2000. Print.
Hill, Christine M. Langston Hughes: Poet of the Harlem Renaissance. Springfield, NJ, USA: Enslow, 1997. Print.
Huggins, Nathan Irvin. Voices from the Harlem Renaissance. New York: Oxford UP, 1976. Print.
Lewis, David L. The Portable Harlem Renaissance Reader. New York: Viking, 1994. Print.
Lopez, Trudier Harris. "Harlem Renaissance - Literature - Home." Harlem Renaissance. N.p., 1998. Web. 05 Feb. 2014.
Rowen, Beth, and Borgna Brunner. "Great Days In Harlem." Infoplease. Infoplease, 2007. Web. 04 Feb. 2014.
Wormser, Richard. "The Harlem Renaissance (1917-1935)." PBS. PBS, 2002. Web. 05 Feb. 2014.

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