1. L14: The Great Migration and the Harlem Renaissance (1910s-1920s
The Struggle for Equality
Agenda
Objective:
To understand what the Great Migration was.
To understand what the Harlem Renaissance was.
To understand the significance of the Harlem Renaissance for the black experience.
Schedule:
Lecture
Art Analysis
Whole Class Discussion
Homework:
Content:
None 
Junior Thesis:
Research Question, Bibliography, and Notecards Due:
Green: Thurs 12/11
Purple: Fri 12/12

2. Objectives Understand what the Great Migration was
Understand what the Harlem Renaissance was
Evaluate the effects of the Great Migration and the Harlem Renaissance on
the lives of blacks
Essential Question:
Were the Great Migration
And Harlem Renaissance
emancipatory for blacks?

3. Possibility Opens Up
Life in the Jim Crow south, is the life that the overwhelming majority of African Americans lived.
In 1900, 90% of blacks lived in Southern States!
But…In 1910, a new spark of possibility emerged for African
Americans as an
industrial boom in the
North sparked demand
for new workers.

4. The Great Migration 1910-1930 (second wave, 1930 to 1970)
Movement of 6 million
African Americans out
of the rural south into the
Northeast, Midwest, and
West.
New York, Chicago,
Philadelphia, St. Louis,
Detroit, Pittsburgh,
Cleveland, and Indianapolis
Largest internal movement of an American population.
By the end of the Great Migration…
African Americans became an urbanized—rather than rural—population.
Northern American cities became significantly more black

7. Causes of the Great Migration
Jim Crow Laws in the South (Push)
Racial Violence in the South (Push)
Limited Economic Opportunities in the South (Push)
Increased Demand for Industrial Workers in the North (Pull)
Better Educational Opportunities in the North (Pull)
Increased Political Opportunities in the North (Pull)

8. Effects of the Great Migration
Shift Blacks from a Rural Population to an Urban Population
Increase the number of African Americans living in North cities; Make these cities truly multi-racial
But what else??...

9. The Harlem Renaissance
1920s and 1930s
The Harlem Renaissance was a flowering of African American social and cultural thought which was expressed through:
Paintings
Music
Dance
Theater
Literature

10. Why the Harlem Renaissance
During the Great Migration the majority of African Americans who moved north ended up in New York City.
Of the almost 750,000 African Americans who moved North, nearly 175,000 moved to Harlem.
The neighborhood of Harlem became a ethnic enclave of African Americans.
Harlem is a section of Manhattan, which covers three square miles
Harlem became the
largest concentration of
black people in the world.

11. Why Did the Harlem Renaissance Emerge When and Where it Did?
Emergence of a black middle class coming out of the Great Migration
Increased contact between African Americans and white Americans in the workplace and on city streets forced a new awareness of the disparity between the promise of the American dream and reality.
Blacks WWI experience and disillusionment with race relations in the United States
African American soldiers who served in World War I were angered by the prejudice they often encountered back at home, compared to the acceptance they had found in Europe.
Rise of NAACP and Black Nationalism

12. Understanding the Harlem Renaissance
In order to more fully explore the characteristics, themes, and significance of the Harlem Renaissance we will look at 3 pieces of work from Harlem Renaissance artists.
As you interact with each piece.:
Identify what the piece is saying about:
The Black experience in America
Black identity / Racial Consciousness
White people / White America
How the African American condition should be improved

13. “I, Too, Sing America” Langston Hughes 1945
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” Langston Hughes 1945

14. “Take the A Train” Duke Ellington Jazz Composition 1939

15. Jacob Lawrence “Brownstones” Painting 1954

16. Discussion!
What do the artists of the Harlem Renaissance seem to say about…
The Black experience in America
Black identity / Racial Consciousness
White people / White America
How the African American condition should be improved

17. The Harlem Renaissance and Whites
The Harlem Renaissance appealed to a mixed audience—the African American middle class and white consumers of the arts.
Urbane whites suddenly took up New York’s African-American community, bestowing their patronage on young artists, opening up publishing opportunities, and pumping cash into Harlem’s “exotic” nightlife in a complex relationship that scholars continue to probe.