1. Billy Strayhorn for the Duke Ellington Orchestra
“Take The A Train”
Billy Strayhorn for the Duke Ellington Orchestra
You must take the A train To go to Sugar Hill way up in Harlem
If you miss the A train You'll find you missed the quickest way to Harlem
Hurry, get on, now it's coming Listen to those rails a-humming
All aboard, get on the A train Soon you will be on Sugar Hill in Harlem
What is the tone or mood of this recording?
Why do you think the original recording was made and for what audience?
List two things in this sound recording that tell you about life in the United States at the time.

2. 1920s – 1940s Harlem, New York City
Harlem Renaissance
1920s – 1940s
Harlem, New York City
Many images from CHICO:
Cultural Heritage Initiatives for Community Outreach (CHICO) School of Information, University of Michigan

3. Harlem Renaissance originally called the New Negro Movement.
fostered a new black cultural identity.
1920s through mid-40s.
an outpouring of creative expression that had long been bottled up by the constraints of segregation.

4. The Great Migration
At the beginning of the period, particularly in the South, racism was rampant, and economic opportunities were scarce.
At this time in the South, African Americans were restricted to "colored" facilities clearly inferior to those reserved for white citizens.
Lynching was used to instill fear in entire African American communities in the South.

5. Causes of Migration
new farm machinery drove thousands of tenant farmers off the land.
severe boll weevil infestation
Southern states had fewer schools and higher rates of illiteracy than Northern states.
Northern states also had more cultural attractions and booming industries.

6. Boom Time?
The years between World War I and the Great Depression were "boom times" in the United States.
A "boom" is a time of rapid, widespread expansion of economic opportunity, during which jobs are plentiful.
Jobs were plentiful in cities, especially in the North.

7. Why Leave the South?
Between 1920 and 1930, almost 750,000 African Americans left the South for political, social, and economic reasons.
Why go North?
wider opportunities for prosperity
more racially tolerant environments
a sense of actual (as opposed to theoretical) citizenship
Mass exodus from the South called The Great Migration.

8. Children in the Silent Protest Parade, 1917 Page from The Brownies Book, published by NAACP
On July 28, 1917, in New York City, a silent parade was staged in protest of the East St. Louis, Illinois, massacre of July 2, 1917, as well as the recent lynchings in Waco, Texas, and Memphis, Tennessee. The march was organized by the NAACP, churchmen and other civic leaders to protest the violent events against African Americans around the country. The United States had just entered World War I and many were questioning the use of African-American soldiers to fight in a war that President Woodrow Wilson had described as necessary to the survival of democracy abroad, especially at a time when these same men and their families were denied their basic rights here in the United States. President Wilson continually dismissed the requests of African-American leadership to address the problem of lynching and was considered by many to be one of the most racist presidents ever to occupy the White House. The lynching and murdering of blacks was on the rise. And in the wartime climate many African Americans were migrating to the North, both to escape racial oppression in the South and to secure the plentiful jobs in the munitions centers and factories in the Northern urban centers.
The riots in East St. Louis began when whites, angry because African Americans were employed by a factory holding government contracts, went on a rampage. Over $400,000 worth of property was destroyed. At least 40 African Americans were killed. Men, women and children were beaten, stabbed, hanged and burned. Nearly 6,000 African Americans were driven from their homes.
Across the country, people were aghast at the violence. On July 28, 8,000 African Americans, primarily from Harlem, marched silently down Fifth Avenue. They were dressed in their finest clothes and marched to the sound of muffled drums. They carried picket signs while thousands of New Yorkers watched from the sidewalks. The children marched as well as the adults. Some of the banners read: "Mother, do lynchers go to heaven?" "Mr. President, why not make America safe for democracy?" "Thou shalt not kill." "Pray for the Lady Macbeths of East St. Louis." "Give us a Chance to Live."
The New York Age reported on the march:
They marched without uttering one word or making a single gesticulation and protested in respectful silence against the reign of mob law, segregation, "Jim Crowism" and many other indignities to which the race is unnecessarily subjected in the United States. (1917)
Lynching was never declared a felony by the judicial system of the United States.

9. Reaction of White Southerners
Promised better pay and improved treatment.
Intimidation
Some even boarded northbound trains to attack African American men and women in an attempt to return them forcibly to their homes.

10. The New Negro Has no Fear
After centuries of abuse in the South, many African Americans were "voting with their feet"
UNIA Parade Organized in Harlem, 1924

11. The North: Home Sweet Home?
The North was a step up from the South, but it was no paradise.
Segregation in housing and hiring were the norm.
Northern racism sometimes took on a brutality that equaled anything in the South.

12. The North: Home Sweet Home?
New arrivals could land only low-paying jobs as janitors, elevator operators, domestics, and unskilled laborers.
Despite the challenges, most of those who went North never returned.

13. Why "Harlem" Renaissance?
Of the almost 750,000 African Americans who moved North, nearly 175,000 moved to Harlem.
Harlem is a section of Manhattan, which covers three square miles; therefore, Harlem became the largest concentration of black people in the world.

14. Triggers of Harlem Renaissance
the end of World War I and the return of black veterans
the formation of civil rights organizations (NAACP) and black solidarity movements (UNIA)
the ascendance of Harlem as the "Negro capital of the world"
a new sense of economic, social, and cultural potential
Marcus Garvey's Universal Negro Improvement Association - UNIA

15. The island of Manhattan
Where is Harlem?
The island of Manhattan
Neighborhoods
New York City is on Manhattan island

16. Where was the Harlem Renaissance centered?

17. Billy Strayhorn for the Duke Ellington Orchestra
Now that you’ve learned more about the Harlem Renaissance, listen again to this song. Does it change your answers to the analysis questions below?
“Take The A Train”
Billy Strayhorn for the Duke Ellington Orchestra
You must take the A train To go to Sugar Hill way up in Harlem
If you miss the A train You'll find you missed the quickest way to Harlem
Hurry, get on, now it's coming Listen to those rails a-humming
All aboard, get on the A train Soon you will be on Sugar Hill in Harlem
What is the tone or mood of this recording?
Why do you think the original recording was made and for what audience?
List two things in this sound recording that tell you about life in the United States at the time.

18. Whom do we associate with the Harlem Renaissance?
Artists such as Jacob Lawrence
Authors such as Langston Hughes
Musicians such as Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, and Bessie Smith

19. Jacob Lawrence
Jacob Lawrence grew up in a settlement house in Harlem during the Harlem Renaissance
Lawrence's parents were among those who migrated between , considered the first wave of the migration.
His own life in Harlem ,
and the struggle of other Black Americans
inspired his earliest work

20. Lawrence’s Work
Jacob Lawrence painted his Great Migration series during the 1940s to capture the experience of African Americans during the 1920s

21. Jacob Lawrence
Painter
Painted scenes of:
his own background in Harlem
the hard life of black Americans in the 1920s
The Great Migration series is his most recognized work

22. Langston Hughes
Hughes is known for his insightful, colorful, realistic portrayals of black life in America.
He wrote poetry, short stories, novels, and plays, and is known for his involvement with the world of jazz and the influence it had on his writing.
His life and work were enormously important in shaping the artistic contributions of the Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s.
He wanted to tell the stories of his people in ways that reflected their actual culture, including both their suffering and their love of music, laughter, and language itself.

23. To listen to Langston Hughes read his poem, click here.
The Negro Speaks of Rivers
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.
(1919)
To listen to Langston Hughes read his poem, click here.
One of Hughes's poetic innovations was to draw on the rhythms of black musical traditions such as jazz and blues, but in 'The Negro Speaks of Rivers' it's the heritage of Negro spirituals which is recalled by the poem's majestic imagery and sonorous repetitions. Written when Hughes was only seventeen as he traveled by train across the Mississippi, 'The Negro Speaks of Rivers' is a beautiful statement of strength in the history of black people, which Hughes imagines stretching as far back as ancient Egypt and further into Africa and the cradle of civilization. The poem returns at the end to America in a moment of optimistic alchemy when he sees the "muddy bosom" of the Mississippi "turn all golden in the sunset".
What is the tone or mood of this poem?
Why do you think the poem was written and for what audience?
List two things in this poem that tell you about life in the United States at the time.

24. To listen to Langston Hughes read his poem, click here.
I, too, sing America.
I am the darker brother.
They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes,
But I laugh,
And eat well,
And grow strong. 
Tomorrow,
I'll be at the table
When company comes.
Nobody'll dare
Say to me,
"Eat in the kitchen,“
Then. 
Besides,
They'll see how beautiful I am
And be ashamed-- 
I, too, am America.
I, too, sing America
(1920s)
To listen to Langston Hughes read his poem, click here.
'I, Too' written just before Hughes’ return to the States from Europe and after he'd been denied passage on a ship because of his color, has a contemporary feel in contrast to the mythical dimension of 'The Negro Speaks of Rivers'. It is no less powerful however, in its expression of social injustice. The calm clear statements of the 'I' have an unstoppable force like the progress the poem envisages. Hughes's dignified introductions to these poems and his beautiful speaking voice render them all the more moving.
What is the tone or mood of this poem?
Why do you think the poem was written and for what audience?
List two things in this poem that tell you about life in the United States at the time.

25. Langston Hughes
Poet and Author
Wrote poetry, short stories, novels, and plays.
Known for his colorful, realistic portrayals of black life in America.

26. Duke Ellington
Ellington was a jazz composer, conductor, and performer during the Harlem Renaissance.
During the formative Cotton Club years, he experimented with and developed the style that would quickly bring him worldwide success. Ellington would be among the first to focus on musical form and composition in jazz.
Ellington wrote over 2000 pieces in his lifetime.

27. The Cotton Club
The Duke Ellington Orchestra was the "house" orchestra for a number of years at the Cotton Club. The revues featured glamorous dancing girls, acclaimed tap dancers, vaudeville performers, and comics. All the white world came to Harlem to see the show.
The first Cotton Club revue was in There were two new fast paced revues produced a year for at least 16 years.

28. Jazz composer, conductor, and performer during the Harlem Renaissance
Duke Ellington
Composer/Conductor
Jazz composer, conductor, and performer during the Harlem Renaissance
To hear Duke Ellington, click the link.

29. Louis “Satchmo”Armstrong
Louis Armstrong was a jazz composer and trumpet player during the Harlem Renaissance.
He is widely recognized as a founding father of jazz.
He appeared in 30 films and averaged 300 concerts per year, performing for both kids on the street and heads of state.

30. Composer and trumpet player during the Harlem Renaissance
Louis Armstrong
Composer/Trumpeter
Composer and trumpet player during the Harlem Renaissance
Widely recognized as a founding father of jazz
To hear Louis Armstrong, click the link.

31. Bessie Smith
Bessie Smith was a famous jazz and blues singer during the Harlem Renaissance.
Smith recorded with many of the great Jazz musicians of the 1920s, including Louis Armstrong.
Smith was popular with both blacks and whites

32. Famous jazz and blues singer during the Harlem Renaissance
Bessie Smith
Jazz & Blues Singer
Famous jazz and blues singer during the Harlem Renaissance
Popular with both blacks and whites
To hear Bessie Smith, click the link.

33. Questions to think about:
Study the picture for 2 minutes. Form an overall impression of the painting, then start to focus on individual details.
Questions to think about:
1. What do you see?
2. What people do you see?
3. What objects do you see?
4. What colors do you see?
5. What actions/activities do you see?
6. What questions does this painting raise in your mind?
7. How does this painting relate to the Harlem Renaissance?
8. Based on what you have observed, list what you may infer from this painting.
“Ascent from Ethiopia”, Louis Mailou Jones. 1932