Exploring African American History : The Harlem Renaissance

The Harlem Renaissance was a cultural, social and artistic explosion. This event took place in Harlem, New York between World War I and the mid-1930’s. It was known as the “Negro Movement”. During this movement 1.6 million African Americans moved away from the racial discrimination looking for new opportunities. These African Americans went out and expressed their racial pride with different forms of art.

The Harlem renaissance sought to make the African American gain mainstream acceptance through celebration of culture and expression. The

This was a pivotal turning point for the former slaves to the white man. This renaissance finally allowed many of the poor and rural black communities to have a collective voice and make a significant change. Authors also helped by putting major books and poems out into America for everyone to read and learn about how the black culture operated and thrived. These authors, such as Hughes and Hurston, were single representations to put alongside the Harlem Renaissance that allow others to have a picture of what the actual black life was all about. It was no longer about slavery or persecution from the white people, but instead African Americans found a voice they used to give them an even greater freedom. African Americans showed everyone that they were no longer beneath those who forced them to tend their lands, but were instead equal and quite possibly could be better than many of them. African Americans no longer lived in fear of each and every day, but pushed themselves to the front pages of important newspaper, magazines, and everything else imaginable. They published works and obtained awards just as the white men did, and created their own music to express themselves just as the white man had once done. This

The Harlem Renaissance was a literary, musical, and cultural movement for African Americans. It centered in Harlem, New York, 1910 to mid- 1930's ("Articles"). We also refer to the Harlem Renaissance as, "the New Negro Renaissance, the New Negro Movement, the Negro Renaissance, and the Jazz Age"("Articles"). The Harlem Renaissance was the beginning for African Americans to start expressing themselves through art, music, and literature. While this movement influenced artistic expression, "it also affected politics, social development, and almost every aspect of the African American experience in the mid-1920's"("Articles").

The Harlem Renaissance, originally called the New Negro Movement, was a movement that shook the 1920’s in the United States of America. The Harlem Renaissance spanned between the years of 1918 all the way to the mid 1930’s. This movement was a movement of the arts. It has been said that this time period was a rebirth to the African American arts. The Harlem Renaissance is an extremely important piece of history for America.

The Harlem Renaissance allowed African Americans to express their feelings through music and literature. Before this time African Americans were seen inhumane beings and some were still seen as that so they had to show themselves and they did it through the

The Harlem Renaissance was a creative movement. African Americans began using their talents in order to get their points across. African Americans used their experience from their everyday lives in order to form great music, art, and literature. The creative movement set an example for further years. Artists in the 20th century began using their knowledge of the Harlem Renaissance as a reference for their work.

The mass migrations of blacks into Harlem happened around the early 1900 as living conditions worsen in other parts of the country. Specifically, the KKK in South Carolina, and racial segregation and biases across the south enforced by the Jim Crow Laws, forced black families to go north in search of better housing, jobs and education for their children, and more so, to move away from a culture of lynching and violence. They did not anticipate the violent situations they would face in the North. Due to discrimination they were pushed further and further up Manhattan and into neighborhoods that were over concentrated with blacks and minorities. At times, they faced worsen financial and social conditions that resulted in riots over employment

Reasons for the phenomenon included both racial and economic. Although the Civil War had outlawed slavery, white supremacy was still prevalent in the Reconstruction South. Jim Crowe laws created racial segregation and hate groups such as the Ku Klux Klan flourished. This environment of racial tension and the frequency of hate crimes led blacks to want to escape the south (“A New”). Also, blacks were no longer slaves but they were still economically dependent on agriculture. They became sharecroppers but were often exploited by the white landowners. When boll weevils devastated the cotton crop, blacks were left poor and powerless. In contrast, industrial jobs were abundant in the north. Factories even sent recruiters to the south looking for workers (“Harlem Renaissance”). So, for both safety and economic reasons, many blacks felt that hope for a better life was outside of the south thus the motivation for the Great Migration (“A

During the Harlem Renaissance, all the politic works, theater and arts has sense of pride in the African American experience. Also, the politicians and artists at that period committed to create works that could uplift the African American’s social position.

Without the Harlem Renaissance we wouldn’t have some of the very influential people we know today such as Oprah Winfrey, Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X and etc. Also Duke Ellington’s music became very popular and very influential to other jazz players, which contributes to all of the genres of music we listen to today such as rap, r&b, blues, and etc. African Americans today wouldn’t be as successful today if not for the persistence and determination of those far less fortunate than us, before us. We can only hope to be as influential and important as those who have paved the way for us. We today are trying to fill and follow the path and legacy they have left behind for

The Harlem Renaissance was a cultural, social, and artistic movement that took place in Harlem, New York. This mainly took place starting from the end of the First World War until the mid-1930s. Harlem, at this time, was the center of the African-American culture, and Harlem appealed lot of black artists, writers, scholars, musicians, poets, and photographers. Lots of these artists had fled from the South because they needed to get away from their oppressive caste system so that they could express themselves freely, and display their talents. The Harlem Renaissance was considered to be the “rebirth of African-American arts”. This movement mainly started around 1918 and ended during the mid-1930s. Some of the major writers during this time of the Harlem Renaissance were Langston Hughes, W.E.B. Du Bois, Countee Cullen, Zoe Neale Hurston, and Marcus Gravey. Lots of these themes that these writers wrote about are themes that to this day artists try to make a point of emphasis, including the American Dream, effects of racism on the black population, black identity, and human rights (Wormser).

The Harlem Renaissance represents the rebirth and flowering of African-American culture. Although the Harlem Renaissance was concentrated in the Harlem district of New York City, its legacy reverberated throughout the United States and even abroad, to regions with large numbers of former slaves or blacks needing to construct ethnic identities amid a dominant white culture. The primary means of cultural expression during the Harlem Renaissance were literature and poetry, although visual art, drama, and music also played a role in the development of the new, urban African-American identity. Urbanization and population migration prompted large numbers of blacks to move away from the Jim Crow south, where slavery had only transformed into institutionalized racism and political disenfranchisement. The urban enclave of Harlem enabled blacks from different parts of the south to coalescence, share experiences, and most importantly, share ideas, visions, and dreams. Therefore, the Harlem Renaissance had a huge impact in framing African-American politics, social life, and public institutions.

The Harlem Renaissance acted as the crossroads for black to interact with others and expand their contacts, even internationally. Also, African Americans began to change their image from rural to urban. In other words, they were transforming themselves from peasants to sophisticates. The Harlem Renaissance allowed for African Americans to be a force in America even if they couldn’t be employed and seen as equals to whites. It was so influential that African Americans began to gain power in northern cities such as Chicago and Philadelphia. The Harlem Renaissance phenomenon sparked the idea of “New Negro” and led to the drive for change, giving a sense of Black Nationalism and the ability to express their ideas and concerns in ways they were

The Harlem Renaissance was a cultural, social and artistic explosion that took place during the 1930. (Wormser)This was a period where many African Americans were fleeing from the south (Jim Crow) and moving north to create a better life for