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.
The Harlem Renaissance, a cultural movement that began in the 1920s, brought an excitement and a new found freedom and voice to African-Americans who had been silent and oppressed for a long time. This blossoming of African-American culture in European-American society, particularly in the worlds of art and music, became known as The Harlem Renaissance.
In Harlem between the 1920’s and 1930’s the African American culture flourished, especially in areas such as music, art, literature, dance, and even in film. This soon became known as the Harlem Renaissance. With the entire positive and the negative situations of this time period the African Americans still seemed to have it all. The Harlem Renaissance came about because of the changes that had taken place in the African American community after the abolition of slavery because of World War I and the social and cultural changes in early 20th century in the United States. After harsh conditions for African Americans after the Plessy vs. Ferguson Trial many of them decided to move to the North to New York. By staying in the South they became more and more economically depressed and there was less of a demand for labor. Moving to the North became one of the best things African Americans did for themselves. There, men could vote and there was a better education system for children. As a result of World War I and the Industrial Revolution there were better job opportunities for African Americans as well.
In the larger national community the black culture fought to be part of and not subservient to the white community and the Harlem Renaissance was a way of trying to get into the mainstream.
[4] For example, some point out that “the U.S. Government’s Works Progress Administration cultural program fueled an abundance of African American literary works, performance art, and visual expression well into the early 1940s.” As mentioned, however, the 1930’s is the general end marker because of the Great Depression. http://www.pbs.org/newshour/forum/february98/harlem_2-20.html
When black soldiers began to return to their old daily lives after World War One, they sought a new home where they could be accepted as equals. They knew that there was no hope for that in the South, where racism was the strongest, so many traveled North in a large movement known as the Great Migration. Other factors played a role in this movement, such as natural disasters and the need for education and employment. The most popular destination for negroes looking for a better place to live was Harlem, New York. Harlem provided decent, nonsegregated education, and also better hope for good employment opportunities. However, this city was flooded with new African Americans, and it, like many others, became an identifiably black city. Even nonsegregated schools consisted of mostly black students. The white population began to dwindle in these c...
The Harlem Renaissance in general was the new identity that led to a greater social consciousness, and African American became players on the world stage. The Harlem Renaissance redefined how America, and the world, viewed the African American population.
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 was a huge transition for people of African American descent. It started in the early 1920’s and ended during the late 1920’s as well. People had moved from the southern states where Jim Crow laws were enforced, where discrimination was at its highest. Many people who were writers, entertainers and actors took this as an opportunity to grow as artists. During this time, culture was one of the only things they had left. Those who lived within Harlem needed the positivity to look up to during these hard times.
The Harlem Renaissance influenced black African American writers tremendously. Not only did it show that they were capable of achieving great things, the Harlem Renaissance has shaped and created many pathways for people to be able to achieve something that may not have been achieved at the time.
The Harlem Renaissance was a period of flowering throughout literature and culture for African Americans in America. These growths can be traced back to the musical traditions, black folklore, and folk cultural ways of the African Americans prior to the Harlem Renaissance. Each of these aspects empowered the African Americans to reach the freedom that they deserved. It was a continuous fight but their cohesiveness strengthened their fight.
There was no single cause which produced the Harlem Renaissance, but there are several historical developments which paved the way. The first set of contributing factors deal with the cultural background of Harlem from 1900 to 1920. At the turn of the century, Harlem first began to emerge as a distinctly black community. As black population increased, African American culture came to the surface and blacks started to hold prominent roles in this self-motivated community. This afro-centric atmosphere of Harlem appealed to many southern blacks, and as a result, ?the Great Migration of southern rural blacks to the north began in 1915? (Haskins 15). Blacks left segregation-...
During the eighteenth century, 1918-1930 to be correct, an intense social development that focused in Harlem, New York occurred. The Harlem Renaissance was the introduction of African American; artists, artists, performing artists additionally craftsman. It commended dark conventions, the dark voice, and dark lifestyles. The Harlem Renaissance grasped scholarly, musical, showy, and visual expressions. The members tried to re-conceptualize "the Negro" aside from the white generalizations that had affected dark people groups ' relationship to their legacy and to each other. What kept the Harlem Renaissance important was the way it happened in the condition of New York, its unmistakable figures, workmanship and writing.
Impact of Music of the Harlem Renaissance Upon the Artists of Today. Musicians during the Harlem Renaissance created a style and movement that simply took Americans by storm. Musicians such as Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong have inspired others all over the country. The Renaissance itself was not only an observation of life for African Americans, but it also showed Americans that they have a place in society.
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...