The Harlem Renaissance What was the Harlem Renaissance? Where did it begin? How did it change the lives of many African-Americans? In this paper, these questions along with a few other questions that will be answered. You will also be informed of what is known as the Harlem Renaissance. The Harlem Renaissance movement occurred during post war America at the end of World war 1 to the Great Depression in the 1930s. This movement was made up of a group of African-American writers who produced large quantities of fiction, drama, poetry, and much more, which is why this period is considered a golden age in African-American culture. Because of this starting in Harlem, it was then called the Harlem Renaissance, with Renaissance meaning ¨ẗhe forms …show more content…
At first, this was an exclusive suburb for white citizens, but around the later half of the 19th century, most whites there had moved on further south. During the Great Migration is when Harlem started to turn into an African-American neighborhood, by which the black citizens population in Central Harlem increased from 10% in 1910 to 1930 with over 70%. Harlem became a place of residency to most African-American intellectuals who had something to contribute to this movement. The Great Migration also played an important role with the Harlem Renaissance. Due to the first World War there was a labor shortage that was seen as an opportunity by the African-American citizens to seek employment elsewhere up North. This movement from the rural South to a more urban north of African-Americans was …show more content…
Jelly Roll Morton and Louis Armstrong were both able to draw in huge audiences of both white Americans and African-Americans who caught their jazz fever. The Cotton Club of Harlem also boasted the talents of Duke Ellington. Of the new American city, it took very close proximity to help bring in some of the greatest minds of the day. Harlem also helped to bring notice to lots of great works that might have been lost or never produced otherwise. The Harlem Renaissance artists undoubtedly helped to transform the African-American culture with outstanding results, causing white America unable to look away for the first time due to the strong impact on all American
“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
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
Many historians contribute to the Harlem Renaissance, the beginning of the civil rights movement. With the Civil War ending, African Americans were greatly displaced. The feeling of displacement came about for the African Americans because they were now legally free citizens, but they were still trapped in a country and culture that was not accepting of African Americans. After trying to find their place among the rest of America, the African Americans began a movement that has become known as "The Great Migration." The great migration was a mass exodus of African Americans from around America, to Harlem, New York.
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.
The Harlem Renaissance is a term used to describe the expansion and development of African American culture and history, particularly in Harlem. It is believed to have started around 1919, after World War I, and ended around the time of the great depression. During this time period African Americans writers, artists, musicians, and poets all gathered in Harlem and created a center for African American culture.
The Great Migration was a huge relocation of African Americans from the Southern states of the United States to northern and Midwestern cities. This occurred between the years of 1910 and 1970. Over 6 million African Americans traveled to Northern cities during the migration. Some northern city destinations include Richmond, D.C, Baltimore, New York, and Newark. Western and Midwestern destinations include those such as Los Angeles, San Francisco, St. Louis, Chicago, and Detroit.
Before African Americans moved to this area, Harlem was “designed specifically for white workers who wanted to commute into the city” (BIO Classroom). Due to the rapid growth of white people moving there and the developers not having enough transportation to support those people to go back and forth between downtown to work and home most of the residents left. Th...
The Harlem Renaissance was an intellectual and literary period of growth promoting a new African American cultural identity in the United States. The decade between 1920 and 1930 was an extremely influential span of time for the Black culture. During these years Blacks were able to come together and form a united group that expressed a desire for enlightenment. This renaissance allowed Blacks to have a uniform voice in a society based upon intellectual growth. The front-runners of this revival were extremely focused on cultural growth through means of intellect, literature, art and music. By using these means of growth, they hoped to destroy the pervading racism and stereotypes suffocating the African American society and yearned for racial and social integration. Many Black writers spoke out during this span of time with books proving their natural humanity and desire for equality.
All in all, the Harlem Renaissance was a black cultural movement that took place in the North, particularly in Harlem. Many African Americans stood out, including Langston Hughes, Marcus Garvey, and W.E.B. Du Bois. They were all different kinds of artists who were part of the Great Migration. These artists traveled from the South and other parts of the world to the North because of the increase in black population and culture. Each one of them made a large impact on the Harlem Renaissance and changed black culture forever.
The Harlem Renaissance was a great literature movement for African American people. Around the late 19th century and early 20th century is when the movement started. African American people were able to evolve in the literary world. The Harlem Renaissance dealt with poets, musicians, visuals arts, writers and photographers (Hutchinson, 2016). The Renaissance emerged at the end of World War I. Most African American people moved from the south, trying
The Harlem Renaissance was a time of racism, injustice, and importance. Somewhere in between the 1920s and 1930s an African American movement occurred in Harlem, New York City. The Harlem Renaissance exalted the unique culture of African-Americans and redefined African-American expression. It was the result of Blacks migrating in the North, mostly Chicago and New York. There were many significant figures, both male and female, that had taken part in the Harlem Renaissance. Ida B. Wells and Langston Hughes exemplify the like and work of this movement.
It all started after World War I and during the Great Depression in New York’s Harlem neighborhood, where a lot of people lived. The first building given to black tenants was on West 134th Street. The area was called “The Capital of Black America” and “The Black Mecca” of the world (Harlem Renaissance). From 1900 to 1920, the black population of New York City increased by ninety-one thousand. Harlem is also where freed African Americans searched for a new place to explore their new identities as free men and women.
Although racism seemed to be lower in Harlem and the Northern states, for many Blacks racism was at an all time high. The Ku Klux Klan reached membership of astronomical proportions. They marched in Washington DC and handed out membership cards bashing minorities. Less educated Blacks, or those who couldn’t make it to Harlem, were often deemed ignorant. There was a barrier built between those Blacks with an education, and those without.
The Harlem Renaissance refers to a prolific period of unique works of African-American expression from about the end of World War I to the beginning of the Great Depression. Although it is most commonly associated with the literary works produced during those years, the Harlem Renaissance was much more than a literary movement; similarly, it was not simply a reaction against and criticism of racism. The Harlem Renaissance inspired, cultivated, and, most importantly, legitimated the very idea of an African-American cultural consciousness. Concerned with a wide range of issues and possessing different interpretations and solutions of these issues affecting the Black population, the writers, artists, performers and musicians of the Harlem Renaissance had one important commonality: "they dealt with Black life from a Black perspective." This included the use of Black folklore in fiction, the use of African-inspired iconography in visual arts, and the introduction of jazz to the North.[i] In order to fully understand the lasting legacies of the Harlem Renaissance, it is important to examine the key events that led to its beginnings as well as the diversity of influences that flourished during its time.
The Roaring Twenties a period when a dramatic social and political change happened. Researching about Harlem was learning about how the people contributed more the music to America’s New Urban Culture. The Harlem Renaissance was a significant movement during the 1920s were African American artists were brought together, explored what it means to be an artist, what it is to create art and literature, as well as what it means to be a proud African American in a community, that influence each to stand-up together in a white-dominant culture, furthermore Harlem was a hotbed of political, cultural and social activity. While researching about the 1920’s, I found out so