Harlem Renaissance Cultural Movement: Selma Burke

There were many notable events taking place in the years 1900-1940, some being Pablo Picasso painting one of the first cubist paintings is 1907 , the sinking of the Titanic in 1912 , the 18th Amendment being added to the Constitution (prohibiting the use of intoxicating liquors) and then being repealed in 1933 , the 19th Amendment guaranteeing women the right to vote in 1920 , Amelia Earhart becoming the first woman to fly across the Atlantic in 1928 , and the list continues. Undoubtedly one of the most influential of events during this time was the Harlem Renaissance. Even with its many leaders and innovators, it wouldn’t have been nearly as effective had it not been for Alain LeRoy Locke: black writer, philosopher, and teacher who influenced black artists to look to African sources for pride and inspiration. Without Locke’s contribution, the Renaissance would not have flourished as much as it did, and black pride would have taken longer to develop and accept.

There have been many cultural movements throughout history in this world. One of the greatest movements in this world was the Harlem Renaissance. The Harlem Renaissance movement is defined as a cultural movement that spanned in the 1920’s, at this time known as the Negro Movement; the movement also relied on white patronage. White patronage had a profound effect on the vitality of the Harlem Renaissance, and the evidence says the Harlem Renaissance would not have reached the heights it did without generous white contributions. The Harlem Renaissance spurred events that affected the African Americans society in areas such as migration, the work force, and also racial pride (www.yale.edu).

In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation freeing all, African-Americans from the bonds of slavery. However, it was still a long road for equality, especially in the South. In the early twentieth century, many African-Americans escaped the south and traveled to northern cities, now known as the Great Migration. Many African-Americans settled in a neighborhood in New York City known as Harlem.

The “Harlem Renaissance” which we also refer to as “The Jazz Age” and/or “New Negro Movement” was the time where underprivileged African Americans migrated to the north mostly to Chicago and New York in search for a better life. This was a time of a cultural, social, and creative movement that enhanced the African American Community mostly in New York and Chicago between the years of 1917 and 1935. The Harlem Renaissance was the defining moment when African American photographers, writers, musicians, poets, artists, actors, scholars, dancers, composers and etc. migrated from the south to escape the oppression of Caucasian supremacy and poor conditions. They traveled in order to be able to express their talents freely. The movement allowed oppressed African Americans to express their creativity, skills, intelligence and determination. The Harlem Renaissance is the movement that contributed a fundamental part of the culture we know today. During this time African Americans started to embrace things of their culture such as music, theatre, and art.

During the 1920’s a new movement began to arise. This movement known as the Harlem Renaissance expressed the new African American culture. The new African American culture was expressed through the writing of books, poetry, essays, the playing of music, and through sculptures and paintings. Three poems and their poets express the new African American culture with ease. (Jordan 848-891) The poems also express the position of themselves and other African Americans during this time. “You and Your Whole Race”, “Yet Do I Marvel”, and “The Lynching” are the three poems whose themes are the same. The poets of these poems are, as in order, Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, and Claude Mckay.

Many African Americans had been enslaved and remained living in the south. After the end of slavery, the emancipated African Americans, started to act for civic participation, political equality and economic and cultural independence. Right after the civil war had ended many African American Congressmen began to give speeches after the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871. 6 of the congressmen were black by 1875 as part of the Republican Party’s reconstruction legislation By the 1870s, the predominately white Democratic Party managed to regain power in the South. Between 1890 and 1908 the Democratic Party proceeded to pass legislation that were not favorable for

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.

Julio Valdez Olsen ICS 5 10/21/14 The Struggle of Art Ever since Africans were brought over from Africa against their will, they have been segregated from the elite class. They have been frowned upon for over two hundred years, even in this point and time in the twenty-first century. Through time they had some ways of expressing themselves to show the world of their culture, heritage, and believes. They expressed themselves by paintings, architecture, graphic arts, and sculptures.

The most successful club out of all the ones in Harlem was known as the Cotton Club. Ellington and Calloway would perform there regularly. Others believed they were a sign that African American culture was moving towards greater acceptance. The culture boom in Harlem gave African Americans actors opportunities for stage work.

Subsequent to World War I, America saw the dawn of the industrial age, and a labor boom that would ignite a great and steady migration of Black American(s) (BA) and Caribbean nationals to the North. Such an influx of Blacks and other immigrants began to change the landscapes of these cities from rural to urban centers, with concentrated populations that caused housing shortages, economic disparity, and social and political pressures for BA. The failed attempt to abolish slavery by law, and of the Reconstruction Era, BA were stuck within a new kind of purgatory. Their expectations of having equal rights recognized, while segregation was still actively pursued by the white majority, came as a crushing and bitter reality for southern migrants. As such, frustrations were felt by both White Americans (WA) and BA; WA began to resent the waves of migrants coming to take jobs, and overrun their cities, just as BA resented the lies they were fed that influenced their migration, as well as the conditions that were forced upon them. In a time heavy with ever growing frustrations around political, economic and social barriers, it would be a group of BA intellects and artists that would begin of movement towards acknowledging black culture and pride, known as the Harlem Renaissance.

The 1920 's were a time of battle for African-Americans. Servitude was nullified, yet blacks were still persecuted and were not the slightest bit equivalent to whites. Nevertheless, right now blacks were beginning to gain some ground toward racial equity. The Harlem renaissance began the principal genuine feeling of African-American society through workmanship, jazz, move, and writing. There was additionally right now the start of solid African-American developments to facilitate the dark race. An unmistakable development was driven by W.E.B Dubois that concentrated on instructing blacks to make fairness. On the other side of the political range was Marcus Garvey, who drove the development for blacks to join as a race against mistreatment.

The Harlem Renaissance was the height of black culture. It was a time period where blacks and their creativity were finally excepted. Socially, artistically and musically blacks changed the way America saw African americans.

I always found the 1920’s a very interesting decade as it went from a lively moment to a depressing and struggling one within a split second. Therefore, I believe that I learned all of the concepts pretty well. For instance, I learned about the Harlem Renaissance, the cause and effect of The Dust Bowl, and the lasting political argument of the New Deal in the United States. First of all, the Harlem Renaissance was a time period where African Americans began to embrace their roots and create art/works to reflect their experience living in US society. However, during the Great Depression many Americans were left unemployed. In addition to drastic unemployment rates, the environmental disaster, also known as the Dust Bowl, contributed to many

The Great Migrations was the movement or relocation of over 6 million blacks from Southern rural regions to Northern urban areas. Looking to leave behind the racial tension of the south, and with hopes of new job opportunities in the north, many blacks moved in to urban cities such as Chicago, Detroit, and Harlem. Out of these northern metropolises, the most popular was Harlem; “here in Manhattan (Harlem) is not merely the largest Negro community in the world, but the first concentration in history of so many diverse element of Negro life”(1050). Harlem became the mecca of black people, and between the years of 1920 and the late 1930s it was known as the Harlem Renaissance. The Harlem Renaissance, brought artiest, poets, writers,

Thesis: The literary movement during the Harlem Renaissance was a raging fire that brought about new life for the African American writer; its flame still burns today through the writings of contemporary African American writers.