The Harlem Renaissance

What was the Harlem Renaissance? A Black literary and artistic movement The first in African American history A cultural, social, and artistic explosion It took place in Harlem -- (New York City} The end of WW I and the middle of the 1930s

Harlem Blacks were drawn to Harlem during the Great Migration “The capital of Black America.” Black intellectuals and artists came from across the country Writers, artists, musicians, photographers, poets, scholars Fleeing the Jim Crow South Harlem was the center of black cultural life

The New Negro Movement The New Negro was militant and proud of his race The New Negro wanted to keep his group identity The New Negro demanded full rights of citizenship Harlem Renaissance called “The New Negro Movement” A shift from Booker T. Washington to DuBois Black leadership moved from Tuskegee to New York Rejecting Washington’s message of accommodation

Patrons of the Harlem Renaissance Harlem Renaissance made possible by white people Whites “patrons” sponsored Black artists White readers bought books by black writers Black writers and artists mixed with whites Best-integrated group among American blacks. mixed freely with white literati Mixed freely with the Greenwich Village crowd Interracial couples danced at the Cotton Club

Origins of the Harlem Renaissance For over thirty, Black intellectuals had been studying . . . black history and folk culture African roots of Black culture Negro spirituals were introduced to the general public The American Negro Academy promoted the black arts literature, arts, music, and history Black writers explored life in black communities The first Negro dolls appeared

A growing Black press Between 1910 and 1920 50 black newspapers and magazines were established Bringing the total to 500. The Associated Negro Press founded in 1919 The first national black press agency Founded by Claude Barnett

A growing interest in Black history The first college courses in Black history Taught in Black Colleges 1910s The first permanent Negro historical association est. 1915 Studied both the African & American past Founded by Carter G. Woodson The Journal of Negro History

The Harlem Renaissance included art from every medium Literature Poetry Painting Music Theater Photography

Jazz and the Blues The Renaissance also incorporated jazz and the blues, This music drew whites audiences to Harlem speakeasies Whites were attracted to the alleged exotic way of life The famous Cotton Club entertained white audiences Black and white musicians A chorus line of light-skinned Blacks. Blacks could enter only as performers and employees not as paying guests

Key figures of the Harlem Renaissance Countee Cullen Arna Bontemps

Key figures of the Harlem Renaissance Claude McKay Alain LeRoy Locke

Key figures of the Harlem Renaissance Aaron Douglas Zora Neale Hurston

Key figures of the Harlem Renaissance Duke Ellington Josephine Baker

Key figures of the Harlem Renaissance Louis Armstrong Langston Hughes

Writers in the 1920s explored a variety of themes An interest in the race's past Langston Hughes, “The Negro Speaks of Rivers.” Arna Bontemps, Black Thunder An exploration of traditions in the black subculture Southern Black religious life The Black family The gentility and respectability of Black middle class life Plots often revolved around “passing” and the color line

Writers in the 1930s explored different themes Protest replaced folk culture Walter White, Fire in the Flint The ironic poems of Countee Cullen (“Yet Do I Marvel,”) The poem The Lynching by Claude McKay Langston Hughes wrote “Let America Be America Again.”