1. The Harlem Renaissance
How does the artist use symbolism to describe the Renaissance?

2. Yankees Buy Pennant Here!!
Mets Lose Here!!
Yankees Buy Pennant Here!!
Giants Stink Here!
Harlem, a neighborhood in New York City, was the center of the African-American political, cultural, and artistic movement in the 1920s and early 1930s.
Can you see any evidence from this map that this is an African-American community?

3. 1930
1920
1911

4. Harlem in the early 1930s
Based on these pictures, describe what life was like in Harlem in the early 1930s.

5. Every family has that one member that they don’t want to admit to!
Causes
What events and movements do you think may have helped lead to the Renaissance?
Great Migration: the movement of hundreds of thousands of African-Americans from rural areas in the South to urban areas in both the North and South.
Every family has that one member that they don’t want to admit to!
Don’t let it be you!!!
What push factors led to the migration? What pull factors led to the migration?

6. Causes
Growing African-American Middle Class: developed as a result of improved educational and employment opportunities for African-Americans.
The Harlem section of New York became the center of this new African-American class.

7. Marcus Garvey pushed for the Back to Africa Movement
Causes
Political Agenda For Civil Rights by African-Americans: leaders such as W.E.B. Du Bois, Marcus Garvey and the NAACP helped to inspire racial pride in the middle and working class.
Du Bois, author of The Souls of Black Folks, was instrumental in the foundation of the NAACP.
Marcus Garvey pushed for the Back to Africa Movement

8. The NAACP published The Crisis, a journal used to share the literary works of African-Americans.
Du Bois believed that artistic and literary work could be used as a form of propaganda to help combat racial stereotypes and gain new respect for the race.
What message does this song, written by an African-American, send to the general public?
How do images like this hinder the efforts of African-Americans like Du Bois?

9. Du Bois also believed in the “talented tenth
Du Bois also believed in the “talented tenth.” This was the idea that a small percentage of the African-American population who were exceptionally skilled should be designated and educated as artistic and cultural leaders. He proposed absolute equality for the "talented tenth" and technical training for the black masses.
In what ways does Du Bois’ “talented tenth” idea combine Washington’s ideas with his own?

10. Du Bois’ Influence on Literature
The Negro Speaks of Rivers
Langston Hughes
I've known rivers:
I've known rivers ancient as the world and older than the
flow of human blood in human veins.
My soul has grown deep like the rivers.
I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young.
I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep.
I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it.
I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln
went down to New Orleans, and I've seen its muddy
bosom turn all golden in the sunset.
Ancient, dusky rivers.
Incident
Countee Cullen
Once riding in old Baltimore, Heart-filled, head-filled with glee, I saw a Baltimorean Keep looking straight at me.
Now I was eight and very small, And he was no whit bigger, And so I smiled, but he poked out His tongue, and called me, "Nigger."
I saw the whole of Baltimore From May until December; Of all the things that happened there That's all that I remember.
How can these poems (and others we will examine) be seen as propaganda?

11. The 369th “Hell Fighters” were rewarded the Croix de Guerre for gallantry in battle and returned to the U.S. as heroes to African-Americans.
Although the French recognized the courage and skill of the regiment, the U.S. Government downplayed their role and even tried to convince the French to do the same.
“…We must not eat with them…shake hands or seek to talk or meet with them outside of the requirements of military duty…We must not commend too highly the [black] troops…” excerpts from a memorandum entitled “Secret Information Concerning the Black American Troops.”
How do you think the American public will treat African-American soldiers upon their return?

12. Causes
Red Summer of 1919
There were 25 major race riots and at least 83 African-Americans were lynched.
The Ku Klux Klan held over 200 meeting to increase enrollment.
In response to the gains by African-Americans, many whites fought back during the summer of 1919.
What are the psychological effects of lynching and cross burning on aspiring African-Americans?

13. What is the imagery used in the poem?
African-American Poet, Claude McKay memorialized the bloody summer of 1919 with the poem, “If We Must Die,” which was published in the magazine Liberator.
If We Must Die
If we must die--let it not be like hogs Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot, While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs, Making their mock at our accursed lot. If we must die--oh, let us nobly die, So that our precious blood may not be shed In vain; then even the monsters we defy Shall be constrained to honor us though dead! Oh, Kinsmen! We must meet the common foe; Though far outnumbered, let us show us brave, And for their thousand blows deal one deathblow! What though before us lies the open grave? Like men we'll face the murderous, cowardly pack, Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!
What is the imagery used in the poem?
What message is the author sending to African-Americans?
Do you agree or disagree with the author? Why?

14. The Harlem Renaissance
Continued

15. Impact
The Harlem section of New York City was transformed from a deteriorating area into a thriving middle class community.
Before
After

16. Modernism & the Harlem Renaissance
Blacks view surge in art, music and literature as the creation of a new cultural identity.
Whites see it as another new, exotic, and trendy form of entertainment.

17. As Modern Artists look to “make it new” they turn to the “New Negro” Arts Movement.
How does the modernist trend towards “primitivism” impact this?

18. Jazz Shapes American Culture
How did the following artists impact American popular music?
Can you identify their music and differentiate it from Early Jazz?
Bessie Smith - Nicknamed The Empress of the Blues, Smith was the most popular female blues singer of the 1920s and 1930s. She is often regarded as one of the greatest singers of her era and, along with Louis Armstrong, a major influence on other jazz vocalists.
Duke Ellington - influenced millions of people both around the world and at home. He gave American music its own sound for the first time. Duke Ellington called his music "American Music" rather than jazz, and liked to describe those who impressed him as "beyond category. He remains one of the most influential figures in jazz, if not in all American music and is widely considered as one of the twentieth century's best known African American personalities, as both a composer and a band leader.
Louie Armstrong - is considered the most important improviser in jazz, and he taught the world to swing.

19. Differences in Artistic Vision
Dubois & Locke
“Thus all art is propaganda and ever must be despite the wailing of the purists.”
“The great social gain in this is the releasing of our talented group from the arid fields of controversy and debate to the productive fields of creative expression.”
Hughes & Hurston
“We younger Negro artists who create now intend to express our individual dark-skinned selves without fear or shame. If white people are pleased we are glad. If they are not, it doesn’t matter. We know we are beautiful. And ugly too.”
Emphasize Langston Hughes – not only was he a writer and poet, he emphasized the contributions of African Americans to American culture.
What do you believe was more important: fighting racial prejudice and stereotyping, or true personal expression?