The Harlem Renaissance
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."
Introduction
The Harlem Renaissance was a cultural African American movement beginning in the 1920’s and lasting through the 1930’s. During World War One, American factories were facing a worker shortage due to the increase of young men heading off to battle. With promises of economic prosperity that sharecropping did not offer, rural African Americans from the south migrated to urban northern cities. The cities that saw the largest influx of African Americans were New York, Chicago, Philadelphia and Detroit.1 When the war ended and soldiers returned home racial tensions began to build due to the lack of jobs and affordable housing.2 Increasing rent prices helped African Americans ban together to form their own neighborhoods, such as
The Harlem Renaissance was the name given to the cultural, social, and artistic explosion that took place in Harlem, New York in the 1920s. The renaissance was more than just a literary movement, it involved racial pride. This was a time for cultural explosion, after African Americans had dealt with years of slavery and the fight or abolition. The encounters with music art and literature of the Harlem Renaissance impacted American society by bringing light to artists, such as writers, musicians and painters that challenged the white society’s ideas about African Americans.
The Harlem Renaissance created a new racial identity for African-Americans living in the United States, after the First World War. This new racial identity caused the African-Americans to become a nation within the United States. A nation is defined as a group of people that share common language, ethnicity, history, and culture. A nation of people may or may not have sovereignty. Harlem, a neighbourhood in Manhattan, New York City, emerged as the “race capital”1 for African-Americans living in the Northern states. Many African-Americans migrated from the Southern states to the North because of an influx of available jobs after World War I. Influential writer James Weldon Johnson described Harlem as “being taken without violence.”2 The borough was flooded with Southern African-Americans looking for work. They were apt to work in the factories, and would rather that, than work in the Mississippi Valley on cotton farms.3 As the economy began to prosper a distinct African-American middle class began to emerge. This was mainly due to an increase in jobs and education. The increase in education and the emergence of a middle-class began to bring intellectuals to the forefront of the African-American nation. Influential African-American writers, artists, and politicians began to emerge in their respective communities. Harlem became the hub of a social revolution. The African-American culture began to spread. Art, novels, and poems became centers of the African-American community. The white Americans began to notice and acknowledge, these impressive works of art. Jazz music, or the blues, became a worldwide-recognized American music style. The Harlem Renaissance also led to a large change in many political disputes led by leaders such a ...
During the early to mid-twentieth century Langston Hughes contributed vastly to a very significant cultural movement later to be named the “Harlem Renaissance.” At the time it was named the “New Negro Movement,” which involved African Americans in creating and expressing their words through literature and art. Hughes contributed in a variety of different aspects including plays, poems, short stories, novels and even jazz. He was even different from other notable black poets at the time in the way that he shared personal experiences rather than the ordinary everyday experiences of black America. His racial pride helped mold American politics and literature into what it is today.
Occurring in the 1920’s and into the 1930’s, the Harlem Renaissance was an important movement for African-Americans all across America. This movement allowed the black culture to be heard and accepted by white citizens. The movement was expressed through art, music, and literature. These things were also the most known, and remembered things of the renaissance. Also this movement, because of some very strong, moving and inspiring people changed political views for African-Americans. Compared to before, The Harlem Renaissance had major effects on America during and after its time.
The Harlem Renaissance took place between 1919 and 1935; it was a movement that included literary arts, specifically the portrayal of black life from a realistic view; it is known as one of the most influential movements as it was the development of the African American culture (Hutchinson 1). In the renaissance blacks essentially made a new identity for themselves; known as the “new negro”, this included no longer allowing whites to treat them as if they were not humans; additionally they would breakdown the stereotypes of blacks and not let whites dictate them because of their color, past, or financial status (Morgan 214). The Harlem Renaissance is fundamentally a group of black literati, such as writers, poets, etc. that got together and decided to change the perception of blacks amongst whites in order to prove to whites that blacks could be just as capable as them in life. Some of the writers involved in the renaissance were poets, Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, and Claude McKay; in these poets works there are distinctive characteristics of the Harlem Renaissance that are present. The main characteristics that all three writers include in their works is social activism
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.
During this era, the African-American people were on the rise especial when they were all moving to the north to find what they truly desired. Especially in Harlem where everything happened and was alive. The movement that was the Harlem renaissance, brought all colored men and women together. This movement began after the First World War and ended in the early 1930s. Just like the European renaissance, the Harlem renaissance was the rebirth of a culture. This expressed and inspired artists, literature, poetry, music, dance, and many other artistic hobbies and talents that people could think of (Crash Course). This also became a social and political movement as well. This era defined what it meant to become a person of color, American, and an artist altogether.
This was what the social, artistic, and cultural upsurge that occurred in Harlem in the years between the First World War and the mid-1930s was called (Wormser, 2002). Harlem in the course of this period was a cultural hub; it brought in black authors,