Nativism During The Harlem Renaissance

2. The African American culture blossomed during the Harlem Renaissance, particularly in creative arts, and the most influential movement in African American literary history. Embracing literary, musical, theatrical, and visual arts, participants sought to reconceptualize “the Negro” apart from the white stereotypes that had influenced black peoples’ relationship to their heritage and to each other. They also sought to break free of Victorian moral values and bourgeois shame about aspects of their lives that might, as seen by whites, reinforce racist beliefs. Never dominated by a particular school of thought but rather characterized by intense debate, the movement laid the groundwork for all later African American literature and had an enormous

In simple words Nativism is a dogged adherence that race is the determinant of cultural identity, and it played an important role of shaping america at the beginning of the 20th century. The self-righteousness of the reformers during the progressive era matched with america after World War One, they incited a new sense of Nativism during the 1920s and 1930s that tried to preserve the the true conception of Americanism. The concepts of social restrictions and genetic sanitation clearly supported nativism. Nativism was a logical outgrowth on the human mind that fought for a large scale Government funded cleansing of American society. On a higher level, progressivism and nativism were impressions of the predominant utopianism in the American public. The paranoid anti-foreignism and vindictive censorship of radicalism of the day are two hallmarks of nativism. The hysteria reached epic proportions during 1919 and 1920, culminating in the first organized manifestation of brewing anti-foreignism, “the red scare.” Attorney general Mitchell Palmer capitalized on frightened Americans by zealously rounding up over six thousand alleged enemies of the state. Moreover he successfully forced the deportation of 249 suspected radical communists back to

People turned more and more towards criminal activity, organized criminals such as the American mobsters and European crime syndicates thrived, most common people looked upon these organizations as heros. Criminals like Al Capone, Bonnie and Clyde and John Dillinger were headliners of the era. Jobs were scarce and people needed to provide for their families, gangsterism was dangerous but provided an easy way to make money. When the American government passed the eighteenth Amendments outlawing alcohol, people who enjoyed a drink became criminal for doing so. It was organized criminals who supplied the booze. In January of 1920 the American government banned the sale and supply of alcohol, the government thought that this would curb crime and violence, prohibition did not achieve its goals, leading more toward higher crime rates and excessive violence. Alcohol was seen as the devil's advocate and banning the substance would help improve the quality of American lives. It caused an explosive growth in crime with more than double the amount of illegal bars and saloons operating than before prohibition. The government set up the “Federal Prohibition Bureau” to police prohibition, this did not deter people and organized crime continued to be the main supplier of booze. With a large coastline it was almost impossible to police with only five percent of alcohol ever being confiscated. Bribing government officials was common, and people were increasingly crafty in the way they