Harlem: Underprivileged By Blacks In The United States

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1912 , the 18th Amendment being added to the Constitution (prohibiting the use of intoxicating liquors) and then being repealed in 1933 , the 19th Amendment guaranteeing women the right to vote in 1920 , Amelia Earhart becoming the first woman to fly across the Atlantic in 1928 , and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.

During the early 1920’s, African American artists, writers, musicians, and performers took part in a cultural movement known as the Harlem Renaissance. This migration took place after World War 1 and brought African Americans of all ages to the city of Harlem located in New York (Holt). There were many inspiring young artists; one of them in particular was Augusta Savage.

The simple game of basketball introduced in 1891 has slowly changed over time in response to new social and political changes occurring in the U.S. The jazz age contained the New York Renaissance, more commonly known as the Harlem Rens, who were the first all-African American professional basketball team. The Rens, through incorporating their black style of improvisational play on the court, differed greatly from all other teams, and earned their title as world champions. As world champions, the Rens were still subject to racial discrimination, but through their success, they were able to create awareness of their talent, develop a following of support with African Americans, and break racial barriers along the way. The black style and sportsmanship the Rens displayed produced many accomplishments breaking racial barriers in a manner that influenced the next generations to continue from, paving the way towards achieving racial equality.

The early 1900s was a time marked with tragedy in America. Started and ended with the Great Depression in between, it was not America 's finest moment. Prohibition was in place, the Klu Klux Klan was still marching, and the Lost Generation was leaving for Paris. But despite the troubling times, people still found beauty and meaning in the world around them. They still created art and celebrated life. The Harlem Renaissance was an artistic and literary movement that developed a new black cultural identity through artistic expression. It fused African traditions with slave history and American culture, and revealed to the world what life was like as a black person in America.

The Harlem Renaissance was the name given to the cultural, social, and artistic explosion that took place in Harlem, New York between the conclusion of World War I and the middle of the 1930s. During this period, Harlem was a cultural center, drawing black writers, artists, musicians, photographers, poets, and scholars. Many had come from the South, fleeing its oppressive caste system in order to find a place where they could freely express their talents; this became known as The Great Migration. Among those artists whose works achieved recognition were Langston Hughes, Claude McKay, Countee Cullen, Arna Bontemps, Zora Neale Hurston, and Jean Toomer. The Renaissance involved racial pride, fueled in part by the violence of the "New Negro" demanding civil and political rights. The Renaissance incorporated jazz and the blues, attracting whites to Harlem speakeasies, where interracial couples danced. However, the Renaissance had little impact on breaking down the rigid barriers of Jim Crow that separated the races; while it may have contributed to a certain slackening of racial attitudes among young whites, perhaps its greatest impact was to reinforce race pride among blacks. The importance of the social movement we refer to as the Harlem Renaissance cannot afford to be overlooked. Like the musicians of their day, Harlem Renaissance poets advocated for an equal society, and incorporated personal anecdotes and historical snippets into their compositions to make the

The women previously talked about on include, unfortunately, white women due to the fact that racial issues were still prominent post Civil War to the roaring 20s. Racial tension between blacks (now freed) and whites intensified as time continued after the Civil War. Yet, much like women, racial equality had its gains and its setbacks, especially in the South. Many of the gains for African Americans came in forms such as free blacks whom were equal to white men, political participation, and artistic and social expression during the Harlem Renaissance. However, the setbacks were much larger defeat, such as segregation and the overall treatment of blacks in the States.

Over a significant time frame, African Americans have been forced to endure numerous hardships – one of which being the negatives stigmas that unfairly generalize their people, culture and way of life. Therese stereotypes of a whole nationality label Blacks as, “superstitious, lazy, ignorant, dirty, unreliable, (and even) criminal,” (“Stereotypes”). Such generalizations are products of the public’s perception, which has been diluted by rooted historic and current prejudice as well as the media’s conveyance of a well-known African American cultural center: Harlem. Despite negative connotations associated with it, Harlem stands as a community that strives to flourish and maintain its strong cultural status. George Canada, the founder of the

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.

West African Muslims immigrants fit into the fabric of Harlem, New York, they have challenged established ideas of Islam, race, and cultural difference in one of the centers of black culture, thought, and politics. Excellent economic opportunities for Blacks and the existence of a large upper-middle and upper class Blacks are some of the effective factors that pulled African American to live in Harlem.

New Negro Movement, the elegant roaring times of the Billie Holidays’, Dorothy Wests’, and the Augusta Savages’. The rebirth of African American arts, took place in Harlem, New York in the early 1920’s. The New Negro Movement was utilized to describe African American as artistic, conscious, sophisticated. The Great Migration was the movement of 6 million African Americans who began to move from the rural southern parts of the United States to the Northeast and Midwest parts the United States. The migration of African Americans first began approximately in 1910 and ended in 1930, which was 1.6 million people moved to industrial cities. The Second Great Migration, around 1940 and ended around 1970, which began after the Great Depression and bought at least 5 million people. By the end of the Second Great Migration, according to Wikipedia, African Americans had become an urbanized population. These people who would one day leave their soulful marks on the planet, migrated to North to seek better education, job security, and higher wages. This “American dream” illusion was very short lived. You would think that once African Americans moved from the racist South, the North would be perfect utopia. Although they were free from the violence and the hatred that oppressed them in the South. Migrators soon realized they have not reached the promised land. As the black communities grew in the North, the whites who resented the idea of sharing

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.

Racism or racial discrimination is the direct opposite of being loving and therefore stops people from becoming the Jesuit ideal of being men and women for others. Poems, the literary arts and motion pictures can offer an escape for those affected by this type of bigotry. Unfortunately, there has been other examples of racially prejudiced poems, literary arts, and motion pictures. For example the 1915 film Birth of a Nation was a groundbreaking film that led to the emergence of the Second Ku Klux Klan. The movie dealt with the Civil War and the Reconstruction era of the United States. The reason why this film is so controversial is that it portrayed African Americans as not smart and also sexual violent, while portraying the KKK as a just and chivalrous force for good. This film influenced the Harlem Renaissance Poets because it illustrated how hate and discrimination existed against African Americans. That is why racial discrimination is one of the most important problems. Racial discrimination and stereotypes are important to consider in modern times because they are the opposite of love, which is hate. The poetry I chose that dealt with how African Americans not only survive with racism but learned how to defeat it.

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

     Between 1910 and 1920, in a movement known as the Great Migration, hundreds of thousands of African Americans uprooted from their homes in the South and moved North to the big cities in search of jobs. They left the South because of racial violence and economic discrimination. Their migration was an expression of their changing attitudes toward themselves, and has been described as "something like a spiritual emancipation." Many migrants moved to Harlem, a neighborhood on the upper west side of Manhattan. In the 1920's, Harlem became the worlds largest black community; also home to a highly diverse mix of cultures. This unprecedented outburst of creative activity exposed their unique culture and encouraged

“Art should comfort the disturbed & disturb the comfortable” (Cesar Cruz). The Roaring Twenties a term used to refer to the 1920’s. The Great Migration collected as much as hundreds of thousands of African Americans from the South to the urban North (“The Harlem Renaissance”, N.p, N.d) . Many of these African Americans realized they had many things in common according to the past history and the present. Their cultures was revived, known as the Harlem Renaissance. In the early 1920’s, African American progressed as actors, musicians, literature, fighting for rights,and the great depression ending the Harlem Renaissance