The Harlem Renaissance
Katherine Morel Honors History 2 Period 6 October 30,2017
As a result of WW1, The Great Migration occurred where millions of African Americans traveled up North for a better life. Many established in New York, Cleveland, Chicago and Pittsburgh, even Philadelphia but New York was the most vibrant as African Americans developed their culture. Many established in New York City neighborhood which was known as “Harlem” were African Americans got a new sense of hope and pride as they had a chance of rebirth. Afro-Americans decided to come to the North after WW1 as American factories decreased with workers this was a chance for African Americans to come to the North to make a better living. As many came to the North they heard many stories of the increase in economic opportunities, political rights and social Advancement. Also, many who traveled North wrote letters back to friends and family; it increased the stories of how the North should be their next pit stop. As the South was considered a dead end as they faced true segregation, Jim Crow laws, and mostly banned from getting an education as they
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1912 , the 18th Amendment being added to the Constitution (prohibiting the use of intoxicating liquors) and then being repealed in 1933 , the 19th Amendment guaranteeing women the right to vote in 1920 , Amelia Earhart becoming the first woman to fly across the Atlantic in 1928 , and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.
Harlem Renaissance 2015, Wikipedia, accessed 23 August 2015, . Harlem Renaissance n.d., History, accessed 23 August 2015, . Harlem Renaissance n.d., Encyclopedia Britannica, accessed 23 August 2015, . Great Migration 2015, Wikipedia, accessed 23 August 2015, . Claude McKay 2015, Wikipedia, accessed 24 August 2015, .
The Harlem Renaissance took place soon after the “Great Migration.”At this time, African Americans had endured centuries of slavery and the struggle for abolition. The Great Migration was a time period, that began in 1910, that African American people moved out of the Southern parts of the United States to other parts where they were more excepted. This movement was made by over six million African American people. These people moved to a variety of different places around the states, but the largest movement was to the Harlem neighborhood of the borough of Manhattan in New York City, New York.
The Harlem Renaissance was a time for vast cultural celebration. The article “The Decade That Roared” (2014) explains that African Americans had sustained centuries of compelled slavery and the endeavor for abolition. Abolitioning slavery gave hope to many African Americans. It gave them high hopes for a new life, one lead by independence. The article says that instead, caucasian supremacy was quickly, legally, and violently restored to the New South, where ninety percent of African Americans lived. The text then says starting in about 1890, African Americans migrated to the North in great numbers. This great migration eventually relocated hundreds of thousands of African Americans from the rural South to the urban North. According to the text, many discovered they had shared common experiences in their past histories and their uncertain present circumstances. Instead of wallowing in self-pity, the recently dispossessed ignited an explosion of cultural pride. Even though the African Americans had lost their short lived sense of freedom in America, they were not about to abandon all that they had worked for. This was known as the birth of the Harlem Renaissance.
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 Great Migration from the South bought most of the blacks from the south to the black neighborhoods within the North and Midwest. Harlem became
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
Zora Neale Hurston, who wrote Their eyes were watching god, was an American famous folklorist, anthropologist and author during the time of the Harlem Renaissance. The Harlem Renaissance was a social, cultural and artistic explosion and movement that kindled a new black cultural identity in Harlem, New York, during the 1920s. In 1926, Alain Locke declared that “Negro life is seizing its first chances for group expression and self-determination.” Harlem became the midpoint of a “spiritual coming of age” in which Lock’s “New Negro” altered social disillusionment to racial pride. According to the Project Muse (2015), The Harlem Renaissance also included the visual arts and cultural expressions across the urban areas in the Midwest and Northeast sides of the United States, and it was considered to be a reborn of African-American arts.
Second, there was an event that occurred from the Roaring Twenties or the Jazz Age, which was called the Harlem Renaissance. During the Harlem Renaissance, a numerous amount of African American put forth their talents and intellect. This is a prime example of a form of expression or cultural expression because a trend was set for more African Americans to start “Expanding their horizons and embracing the concept of the “new Negro” movement (P. Scott Corbett, et al). Even though discrimination was still around, this progressive movement helped African Americans contribute to literature, music, politics and more. In which helped shape and form a path for African-Americans to rediscover their black culture, for African American artists, writers, and other famous leaders to “formulated an independent black culture and encouraged racial pride, rejecting any emulation of white American culture” (P. Scott Corbett, et al).
In history there is a part that everyone wants to change and make it better. That is slavery and treatment that was given to the people. But it is history and can’t be changed, the positive is that African-Americans made great contributions to history, which many of them took place in the Harlem Renaissance. The Harlem Renaissance name given to the cultural, social, and artistic explosion that took place in Harlem between the end of World War 1 and the middle of the 1930’s. When many of the men went to world war 1, a few African Americans from the south moved to New York. A specific white community called Harlem.
These great numbers of blacks along with economic aggressive black businessmen is how Harlem's newly developed real estate was seized from the white middle-class and was converted into the biggest and most elegant black community in the Western world (Huggins p.14). With this acquisition, Harlem had become a great concentration of blacks from all over the country within the most urbane of American cities (New York) just feeling its youthful strength and posturing in self-conscious sophistication. The growth and flourishing of Harlem came at just the right time for black Americans to rekindle dreams of innocence and a new start in America . An essay written by one of Harlem's most prominent leaders Alaine Locke stated that "without pretense to their political significance, Harlem had the same role to play for the New Negro as Dublin has had for the New Ireland or Prague for the New Czechoslovakia."(Knopf p.115). This idea spread like wildfire causing Harlem to be viewed by many as the "black metropolis or mecca".
In order to get a better understanding on how the Harlem Renaissance began, one must start with the Great Migration from the South to the North. Considered the largest migration in U.S. history, record numbers of African Americans started arriving in large numbers in urban areas from many parts of the rural South. This period was also known as the period of economic growth. Due to poor conditions in the South, the North represented hope and progress. As America was in conflict from World War I, the goal of the nation was to support the fight for democracy. And as the war progressed, there was a growing need to fill jobs due to labor shortages in the North. The North being the primary industrial, caused many jobs to become available, and large
One of the most inspirational, upsetting, and hope inspiring pieces of history that America has to offer is the city of Harlem, New York. There might be many things that come to mind when one hears of the city Harlem such as the Renaissance, the ghetto, the hipsters, and even former President of the United States; Bill Clinton. While all of these things do embed the culture of Harlem it has feel from the heights the city once held it fell to the point where it was once even disowned by famous African American poet James Baldwin who was once seen as the city’s golden child. Even though Harlem has been through a lot of changes over the last century it is still a beautiful place and important to American history.
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.
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