The Harlem Renaissance : A Period Of Ethnic Rebirth

The Harlem Renaissance was a time of cultural endeavors of intellectual and artistic African American leaders during the 1920s. It was a manifestation of embracing poetry, literature, music, art, film, fashion and all things synonymous with creativity. It begun during the end of World War 1, in a relatively small section in New York City and ended during the aftermath of The Great Depression. This was by far one of the most influential movements in African American culture. African Americans took pride in themselves and in their culture and wanted to showcase this through freedom of expression. Self-love in the “New Negro Movement” was monumental as it spread not only through Harlem, NY but also throughout the world. Innovators such as Zora Neale Hurston who was a novelist, anthropologist and folklorist gained recognition for 1925 short story “Spunk” helped spread the awareness. Archibald J. Motley’s bold and vibrant colors in his paintings reflected African Americans in a sophisticated manner, breaking down the negative typical stereotypes. The melodies of music legend Billy Holiday paved the way for manipulating phrasing and tempo of Jazz music. In this research paper I will go more in depth about the Harlem Renaissances. I 'm going to cover the significance of then and now, how it begun after World War 1,who were the influential people during that time period, literature/poetry, the Jazz Age, art, and how it ended due to the Great Depression.

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).

The Harlem Renaissance embraced all types of art forms. Jazz, literature, art, film, and dance were some of the main forms. But jazz, literature, and art is what really kept the African Americans going. At this time jazz was known to be the people’s music. It had originated in New Orleans and soon found its way into the nightclubs in Harlem. For the ones who would go out and experience this lively music they would go out to night clubs. Some of the most popular clubs during

In the 1920’s the Great Migration occured. A lot of African American started arriving at the northern states as a result of the increased job opportunities, seeking a new beginning in towns such as Detroit, Chicago or New York City. The Great Migration acted as a domino effect allowing the Harlem Renaissance to materialize at a similar time. The Harlem Renaissance was an artistic movement which enabled African Americans to display their artistic talent not only to a black audience but to a white one as well. It was named after a neighborhood in New York City- Harlem- since it attracted a lot of artists. The most important outcome of the Harlem Renaissance was that it empowered African Americans and led them to focus on their roots. This explosion

Harlem was important for many reasons but the one reason it is truly known for is the Harlem Renaissance. The Harlem Renaissance was a time of revival among African Americans which inspired a new movement of racial consciousness. It was centered on the works of African-American writers, artists, and musicians in the Harlem fostering a new appreciation for black culture and became known as the New Negro movement. The Harlem Renaissance was shaped significantly by the Great Migration. These African-American intellectuals, activists and artists rebuffed the stereotypes that had bound the “Old Negro” and called for a renewed examination of black life and culture that depicted their lives.Writers like novelist Zora Neale Hurston, poet Countee Cullen, and novelist and songwriter James Weldon Johnson produced great masterpieces which defined a new perspective of African Americans in American society. The Great migration was essential to the birth of the Harlem Renaissance as the Harlem Renaissance was to the post World War II Civil Rights Movement. The Harlem Renaissance had inspired a new African American consciousness which paved the way for Civil Rights

The Harlem Renaissance, also known as the New Negro Movement, is a time period in American history that bred the likes of Langston Hughes, W.E.B Dubois, and Zora Neale Hurston. Despite the name, the Harlem Renaissance is not exclusive to the city of Harlem. The Harlem Renaissance period is an “interdisciplinary cultural movement” (Jones 2008) that unleashed creativity in the African American community and allowed the ingenuity of the community to be shared with the world. The Harlem Renaissance is the beginning of the age of modernism. This artistic movement included creative explosions in the areas of literature, poetry, dance, and music. Fifty-five years after the abolishment of slavery, descendants of former slaves move their families up

“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 was a cultural movement, in the early 1920’s, that involved vibrancies of new life, ideas, and perceptions. The large migration of African Americans northward, after World War I, allowed people of color the opportunity to collaborate in the New York City neighborhood, known as Harlem. This renaissance allowed the city to thrive on a refined understanding and appreciation of the arts. Many individuals were involved in this movement including doctors, students, shopkeepers, and painters who were apart of forming and molding the vibrant and inspirational gem (Holt Elements of Literature – Fifth Course 734). In addition, artists, performers, musicians, and writers gathered together in Harlem to start the beginning of one of the most influential time periods in African American history. However, many factors contributed to the huge impacts of this renaissance, including the effects of the Great Migration, why Harlem was the location for this movement, and the achievements of specific individuals during this time period, such as Augusta Savage.

The Harlem Renaissance was a movement that spanned the 1920s. It was the name given to the cultural, social and artistic explosion that took place in Harlem, New York. During this time, it was known as the “New Negro Movement” named after the 1926 anthology by Alain Locke. The movement also included the new African American Cultural expression across the urban areas in the Northeast and Midwest United State affected by the Great Migration of which Harlem was the largest. The Harlem Renaissance was considered to be a rebirth of African American Literary Movement arose from generation that lived through the gains and losses of Reconstruction after the American civil war. Art and music also flourished during Harlem’s golden age. Plays and concerts

Between 1902 and the Great Depression African Americans began relocating towards the urban North in the Great Migration hoping to escape white supremacy. They gathered mainly in Harlem, New York and except for wallowing in self pity they took advantage of the great majority of their race and decided to take a step out in entertainment (Us History). The Harlem Renaissance was a time of cutting down prejudice and showing the Whites that they have pride in their heritage. Major contributors of this time were Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, WEB DuBois, Neale Hurston, Louis Armstrong, and Billie Holiday; all of them ranging from writers and actors to musicians in Jazz and Blues. Self determination, group expression, and showing Black pride was what their aim was and decided to show people in paintings, group dances, and writings (Mifflin Harcourt). The Harlem Renaissance was not confined to the United States alone and actually was a large movement in Europe, and the Caribbean. Writers and Poets were determined to show their readers the background they came from, no matter how rough it was, and wanted to show them that their pride was not broken. Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, and WEB DuBois were three major writers during the time, and contributed to the main them of Racial Pride that conveyed to the rest of their people and gave hope towards a new age where prejudice would be no more; a time where the background you came from didn’t determine who you

The Harlem Renaissance is a social, cultural, and artistic eruption that happened in Harlem, New York. The outburst took place in 1925 and included the new African-American cultural expression, and it was considered the birth of African –American Arts. The movement also involved Caribbean and African writers who resided in Paris. The emergence of Harlem Renaissance was due to the fight by African Americans who wanted to be given a chance for a participation in civic matters, cultural and economic self-determination, and political equity between the whites and the blacks. This happened after the civil war was over and reconstruction of the nation was taking place. The freed and emancipated blacks begun to push for this reforms. The year 1875 blacks a total of sixteen in number were elected to the Congress and moved on giving numerous speeches. The regain of power by the white supremacist was a major challenge to the blacks in America. This was characterized with denying Africans their political and civil rights, brutalizing of black convicts, exposure to unpaid labor, and conducting lynch mobs and vigilante acts to black communities. This event led the staging of the first Harlem Renaissance with theater plays like “three plays for a negro” in 1917, been showcased to express the black suffering in the region (Wikipedia, 2016). This was followed by a series of activities to show how the blacks were stereotyped in America with Hubert Harrison writing the article “the father of Harlem radicalism” in the year 1917. This was the beginning of the Harlem Renaissance. The Harlem Renaissance is still important in our community up to the date because it gave the contribution towards the music industry. The period led to the development of the Harlem stride style in playing piano that up to the date provides a benchmark in the piano art. The Renaissance period provided fashion clothing for which blacks can be identified with the blacks like wearing of the leather jackets (White, Shane and Graham 1998). The period helped to the rise of African-American music, the culture which up to date is one big industry contributing towards the American economy and the black society.

The Harlem Renaissance was a significant historical movement that originated in Harlem, New York and helped establish the city as an African American cultural center. This period, which lasted from the 1910s to the mid 1930s, is considered a golden age for African American music, art, literature, and performance. As a resurgence of African American art and urbanization began to form, new artistic and social expression began to simultaneously develop in other urban areas as well. The Harlem Renaissance soon became the epitome of a culture that already existed in America, but that never fully developed into its own centralized productive mecca. Previously, African Americans used art as a method to escape discrimination and persecution, but

During the time that World War I concluded, the African American population still faced political problems and discrimination. The Harlem Renaissance initiated in the time of the Great Migration, where the black population from the rural South migrated to the

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.