1. The Harlem Renaissance

2. Post-Civil War autobiographies of former slaves: Frederick Douglass, Life and Times of Frederick Douglass (1881, rev – first edition 1845: Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave); Booker T. Washington, Up From Slavery (1901)
Attempts to revise the white stereotypes about African Americans in blackface minstrelsy and vaudeville acts: Daniel Payne, The History of the African American Episcopal Church (1891), George Washington Williams, History of the Negro Race in America from (1893), anthology A New Negro For A New Century (1900)

3. Manhattan

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

6. In the early 1920s, African American artists, writers, musicians, and performers were part of a great cultural movement known as the Harlem Renaissance.
The huge migration to the North after World War I brought African Americans of all ages and walks of life to the thriving New York City neighborhood called Harlem.
Doctors, singers, students, musicians, shopkeepers, painters, and writers, congregated, forming a vibrant mecca of cultural affirmation and inspiration.

7. W.E.B. DuBois
The notion of "twoness" , a divided awareness of one's identity, was introduced by W.E.B. DuBois, one of the founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), editor of Crisis, and author of the influential book The Souls of Black Folks (1903): "One ever feels his two-ness - an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled stirrings: two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder."

8. 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.
When they came home in February 1919, crowds thronged New York City's Fifth Avenue as the 369th marched in their victory parade to the music of their now-famous regimental jazz band leader, James Reese Europe.
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.

9. 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.

10. Common themes of the Harlem Renaissance:
alienation,
marginality,
the use of folk material,
the use of the blues tradition,
the problems of writing for an elite audience.
It was more than just a literary movement: it included racial consciousness, "the back to Africa" movement led by Marcus Garvey, racial integration, the explosion of music particularly jazz, spirituals and blues, painting, dramatic revues, and others.

11. Main literary works:
Anthologies:
James Weldon Johnson (ed.), The Book of Negro Verse (1922)
Alain Locke (ed.), The New Negro (1925)
Novels:
Georgia Douglas Johnson, Bronze (1922)
Jean Toomer, Cane (1923)
Countee Cullen, Color (1925)
Jessie Fauset, There is Confusion (1924)
Claude McKay, Home to Harlem (1928)
Nella Larsen, Quicksand (1928), Passing (1929)
Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937)
Poetry collections:
Claude McKay, Harlem Shadows (1922)
Langston Hughes, The Weary Blues (1926)

12. As Langston Hughes wrote, in the 1920s “Harlem was in vogue.”
Black painters and sculptors
joined their fellow poets,
novelists, actors, and
musicians in a creative
outpouring that established
Harlem as the
international capital of
Black culture.
Langston Hughes

13. Zora Neale Hurston was remarkable in that she was
the most widely published
black woman of her day. She authored more than fifty articles and short stories as well as four novels, two books on folklore, an autobiography, and some plays. At the height of her success she was known as the “Queen of the Harlem Renaissance.”
Zora Neale Hurston
American writer

14. In 1925, at the height of the jazz era in Paris, the sensational cast of musicians and dancers from Harlem, assembled as La Revue Negre, exploded on the stage of the Theatre des Champs Elysees. Its talented young star, Josephine Baker ( ), captivated audiences with a wild new dance called the Charleston.

15. Louis Armstrong brought the technique of trumpet playing to levels that were considered impossible to be reached by a non-classical player.

16. Duke Ellington
Duke Ellington brought a level of style and sophistication to jazz that it hadn't seen before. By the time of his passing, he was considered amongst the world’s greatest composers and musicians.

17. silver print photograph
James Van Der Zee
Couple, Harlem 1933
silver print photograph

18. Harlem Renaissance era.
The visual art of the Harlem Renaissance was an attempt at developing a new African-American aesthetic in the fine arts.
Believing that their life experiences were valuable sources of material for their art, these artists created an iconography of the
Harlem Renaissance era.
Thematic content included
Africa as a source of inspiration,
African-American history,
folk idioms, (music and religion of the South), and social injustice.

19. The Awakening of Ethiopia
This sculpture by Meta Warrick Fuller, anticipated the spirit and style of the Harlem Renaissance by symbolizing the emergence of the New Negro.
Fuller said she was thinking about the average African-American, whom she envisioned “awakening, gradually unwinding the bondage of his past and looking out on life again, expectant and unafraid.”
The garments and stance of this piece counter traditional representations of African-Americans in Western art by depicting a fully erect woman dressed in garments whose style evokes the costumes worn by ancient Egyptian queens.
It is also documented that according to art historian Judith Wilson, an important source of inspiration for The Awakening of Ethiopia may also have been the utopian, Pan-Africanist novel Ethiopia Unbound (1911) by the Gold Coast activist and newspaper publisher J.E. Casely Hayford. Both Casely Hayford and Fuller (who had ties to the Pan-Africanist movement) employed the metaphor of an enshrouded and awakening “Ethiopia”. Physically restrained yet emotional and visually rich, The Awakening of Ethiopia served the representational needs not only of a disillusioned but hopeful black elite in the years , but also of successive generations of “race” men and women.
The Awakening of Ethiopia
1914

20. highlighting the sense
Tanner wanted to show
a positive image of the
African-American by
highlighting the sense
of dignity and in the
touching moment of the
elder teaching the boy how to play the banjo. Tanner also chose the banjo because of its African origin and its being the most popular musical instrument used by the slaves in early America
Henry Ossawa Tanner
The Banjo Lesson, 1893

21. and see blacks as anything less than a proud and majestic people.”
Aaron Douglas
“I refuse to
compromise
and see blacks as anything less than a
proud and majestic people.”
Window Cleaning, 1935

22. William H. Johnson Street-life Harlem

23. William H. Johnson
Chain Gang. 1939
Johnson arrived in
Harlem when the Renaissance was in the making. While there he created several paintings that dealt with political and social issues. Chain Gang is one example.

24. Swing Low, Sweet Chariot 1939
William H. Johnson
Swing Low, Sweet Chariot
1939
Johnson always
showed great
devotion to painting
themes that celebrated
Black Christianity. This
painting is an example
of one based on a literal
interpretation of a
spiritual occasion.

25. Palmer Hayden, The Blue Nile, 1964

26. Robert Gwathmey 1903-1988 Custodian, 1963
Gwathmey was raised in
Virginia, but it was not until his return to the South after years of art schooling in New York that he began to empathize with the African-American experience.
He commented, “If I had never gone back home, perhaps I would never have painted the Negro.”
Robert Gwathmey
Custodian, 1963

27. Jacob Lawrence was a painter who was inspired
to focus his work on the historical development
and struggle of people
from African descent. He used his canvas as a vehicle for making statements on Freedom, Dignity, Struggle, and Daily Life among the African-American peoples.
One of the most acclaimed African-American artists for more than fifty years, Jacob Lawrence has created numerous painting series depicting black historical figures and themes. As a young man he studied art and read extensively on the subject of African American history, which he translated into visual narratives, the best known of which is The Migration Series.
Jacob Lawrence

28. Jacob Lawrence Harlem Rooftops

29. Lawrence commented,
“What did I see when I arrived in Harlem in 1930? I was thirteen years of age. I remember seeing the movement, the life, the people, the excitement. We were going through a great, great depression at that time, but despite that, I think, there was always hope.”
Jacob Lawrence
Aspiration 1988

30. Jacob Lawrence Interior Scene, 1937

31. Men Exist For
The Sake of One;
Teach Them Then or
Bear With Them
Jacob Lawrence