The Harlem Renaissance: A Significant Movement

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 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 New Negro Movement named after the great African American writer, Alain Locke, later known, as the Harlem Renaissance was a time for the African American culture and art to grow. With that growth also came population growth. Artists from the South migrated during the Great migration to the north and Midwest Industrial cities. The Great Migration relocated 6 million African Americans from 1916-1970 and this led to a huge urban impact in the United States. One of the most impacted cities during this time was Harlem, New York City. Harlem was a formally all white neighborhood but by the 1920s housed 200,000 African Americans, which by this time made up 66 percent of New York City’s population. The Harlem Renaissance was a major contributor to the Great Migration. The Harlem Renaissance led the groundwork for a cultural change in the United States’ major Industrial Cities and many of these artists of the time were calling for political and social change. This attracted many African Americans from the South because this was the time of the Jim Crow Laws and the rebirth of the KKK.

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

During the 20th century a unique awakening of mind and spirit, of race consciousness, and

The outburst of creativity among African American occurred in every aspect of art. This cultural movement became The New Negro Movement and later the "Harlem Renaissance. Harlem attracted a prosperous and stylish middle class, which sprouted an artistic center. African Americans were encouraged to celebrate their heritage; The Harlem Renaissance movement was a period of cultural production dating from the end of World War I through the onset of the Great Depression. We will look at the Harlem Renaissance, the great migration, Arts of the Harlem Renaissance, and economic impact 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." 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.

One of the most significant intellectual and artistic trends of twentieth century American history, the Harlem Renaissance impacted art, literature, and music in a manner that forever altered the American cultural landscape. The Harlem Renaissance was a movement in the 1920s through which African-American writers, artists, musicians, and thinkers sought to embrace black freed but still living in poverty as sharecroppers and facing discrimination and prejudice heritage and culture in American life.

Kellner, Bruce, ed. The Harlem Renaissance: A Historical Dictionary for the Era. Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1984

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 ...

The Harlem Renaissance or “New Negro Movement” as coined by Alain Locke was a time when African Americans emerged in the literary, performing and visual arts creating a “black” cultural explosion as we now know it. “Negro has been man without a history because he has been considered a man without a worthy culture (Schomburg, pg. 66) was no longer accurate as black culture was becoming more prominent each day. With slavery being abolished, African

The Harlem Renaissance was named after the anthology The New Negro, edited by Alain Locke in 1925. Centered in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City, the movement impacted urban centers throughout the United States. Across the cultural spectrum (literature, drama, music, visual art, dance) and also in the realm of social thought (sociology, historiography, philosophy), artists and intellectuals found new ways to explore the historical experiences of black America and the contemporary experiences of black life in the urban North.(Nathan Irvin Huggins, Voices From the Harlem Renaissance) Challenging white paternalism and racism, African-American artists and intellectuals rejected merely imitating the styles of Europeans and white Americans and instead celebrated black dignity and creativity. Asserting their freedom to express themselves on their own terms as artists and intellectuals, they explored their identities as black Americans, celebrating the black culture that had emerged out of slavery and their cultural relates to Africa. In another way, Harlem renaissance also can be seen as an acceptance of white people to the Black culture. It influences today’s relationship between colored people and white people. The purpose of this paper is talking about the effects of white people during Harlem Renaissance. I will talk about white people’s responses to the black neighbors when more and more of black started moving to the “white society” and the white positive and negative responses to the Harlem Renaissance’s rhythms, speech patterns, and themes; and in addition, I will talk about the black writers’ literary relationships with white writers and producers.

The violence, inequality, and question of epistemology associated with the Harlem Renaissance is what triggers the controversy and is why the African American community still faces tough challenges to this day. Although this is a very difficult topic to openly discuss with people, it is necessary because there are definitely affairs that no one would have known about had there not been that cultural shift in Harlem. So the next time someone is listening to the radio and bobbing their head to the beat of the rap music, think about all the predicaments people have gone through to give them that

The Harlem Renaissance was an artistic, intellectual, musical, political and literary movement that sparked a new cultural identity within the African American Community, primarily in Harlem, New York City, New York, spanning from the 1920s to the 1930s. After the introduction of the “New Negro” following the Great Migration, in which thousands of African Americans migrated to the north after their newly found freedom and also World War I, which introduced the opportunities and hope for cultural acceptance as well as better jobs.

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.