Sharon Zukin's Why Harlem Is Not A Ghetto

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 Harlem Renaissance was an intellectual and literary period of growth promoting a new African American cultural identity in the United States. The years of 1920 and 1990 and “were clear peak periods of African American cultural production.” During these years blacks were able to come together and form a united group that expressed a desire for enlightenment. “It is difficult not to recognize the signs that African Americans are in the midst of a cultural renaissance” (English 807). This renaissance allowed Blacks to have a uniform voice in a society based upon intellectual growth. The front-runners of this revival were extremely focused on cultural growth through means of intellect, literature, art and music. By using these means

History.com (2009) describes the Harlem Renaissance movement as “a literary, artistic, and intellectual movement that kindled a new black cultural identity.” The 1920s and 1930s emcompass a time in history where blacks found themselves ostracized from mainstream society. It was uncommon to see the expressions of black artistry in everyday life, especially on a literary level.

The Harlem Renaissance was a time of happiness, music, and migration. Everyone was enjoying this time. This was a time when blacks from the south started migrating north for better opportunities. In the twentieth century, blacks started to move to the North as the train provided easy access to Chicago and other Northern Cities (Wormser). For African Americans in this time period there was not much to do in the south to make a reasonable living without being mistreated by whites and they felt that the North had much more to offer them. Jim Crow in the South was quite prevalent and African Americans knew that they weren’t wanted and those who could afford it decided to leave. In the city of Chicago there was a paper called the Chicago Defender that inspired blacks to come to Chicago. The North was and had always been a way out to African Americans since the time of slavery for a chance at freedom. Among those who migrated were the most creative people in the South. Jazz Musicians came from New Orleans to play in Chicago, Kansas City, and New York (Wormser).

By the 1920’s the amount of African Americans in New York City had more than doubled. Meanwhile the roadways and subway system had just begun to reach Harlem, where some of the most influential Blacks had situated themselves. Soon after, Harlem became known as “The Black Mecca” and also as “The Capital of Black 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

Gilbert Osofsky’s Harlem: The Making of a Ghetto paints a grim picture of inevitability for the once-exclusive neighborhood of Harlem, New York. Ososfky’s timeframe is set in 1890-1930 and his study is split up into three parts. His analysis is convincing in explaining the social and economic reasons why Harlem became the slum that it is widely infamous for today, but he fails to highlight many of the positive aspects of the enduring neighborhood, and the lack of political analysis in the book is troubling.

During The Harlem Renaissance, artists and writers of the time period would express themselves through the experiences that they gain from the streets of Harlem. Claude McKay’s writings from the Harlem Renaissance demonstrates life during that time period by showing the Renaissance as “defined, and defied the boundaries of The Harlem Renaissance.”

The Harlem Renaissance was a time of great commotion spanning the 1920s, also known as the “New Negro Movement.” One of the more well-known movers and shakers of the Harlem Renaissance is Langston Hughes. He amongst other artist brought new forms of black cultural expressions into urban areas that had been affected by The Great Migration. Harlem was the largest area affected by said Great Migration. Though the Harlem Renaissance was centered in Harlem the power and strength contained in the words of artist such as Langston Hughes reached Paris and even the Caribbean. Langston Hughes was a key figure in the Harlem Renaissance movement. His vast amounts of work are what brought attention to the struggles and realities of the time

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 migration of over a million Black people from the Deep South to Northern industrial cities was vital to the unprecedented flourishing of Black artistic and intellectual life known collectively as the Harlem Renaissance.” (Alphonso Walter Grant and

The era in American history known as the Harlem Renaissance was a turning point in the lives of blacks in the United States. Harlem, a predominantly black urban community in New York, was the primary destination of the Great Migration. As such, it became the birthplace of a historic cultural movement. The movement of blacks from the southern states to the northern states after the Civil War kick-started the Harlem Renaissance. The Harlem Renaissance was a cultural movement among blacks in the 1900’s that positively affected not only black Americans but the world around them.

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.

From the 1920’s to the mid 1930’s a literary, intellectual, and artistic movement occurred that kindled the African Americans a new cultural identity. This movement became known as the Harlem Renaissance, which is also known as the “New Negro Movement”. With this movement, African Americans sought out to challenge the “Negro” stereotype that they had received from others while developing innovation and great cultural activity. The Harlem Renaissance became an artistic explosion in the creative arts. Thus, many African Americans turned to writing, art, music, and theatrics to express their selves.

     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