The Harlem Renaissance : The Ideas Of The Harlem Renaissance

The Harlem Renaissance was “variously known as the New Negro movement, the New Negro Renaissance, and the Negro Renaissance, the movement emerged toward the end of World War I in 1918, blossomed in the mid- to late 1920s, and then withered in the mid-1930s. The Harlem Renaissance marked the first time mainstream publishers, critics took African American literature seriously, and that African American literature and arts attracted significant attention from the nation as a whole (1).”

The Harlem Renaissance was a golden age in African American culture where white America started to recognize the contributions of blacks in culture, social, and artistic aspects. Humanitiestexas.org states, “Traditionally the Harlem Renaissance was viewed primarily as a literary movement centered in Harlem and growing out of the black migration and the emergence of Harlem as the premier black metropolis in the United States. Music and theater were mentioned briefly, more as background and local color, as providing inspiration for poetry and local color for fiction.” Writers like Langston Hughes, Gwendolyn Brooks, and Countee Cullen were all poet who played enormous roles during the Harlem Renaissance. Countee Cullens

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1912 , the 18th Amendment being added to the Constitution (prohibiting the use of intoxicating liquors) and then being repealed in 1933 , the 19th Amendment guaranteeing women the right to vote in 1920 , Amelia Earhart becoming the first woman to fly across the Atlantic in 1928 , and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

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

 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 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.

Over the course of time, many different movements have occurred. The most influential types have ranged from revolutionary movements to feminism. These movements have changed the course of society and kept a different outlook on new ideas. A very important idea that needed to be stressed was the freedom of African Americans. For so long they were slaves and treated extremely poorly. Eventually, they became free people. However, they were still not viewed as equal. It took many years to move even one step in the right direction. A specific movement did help the African America appear independent and equal. One of the most influential movements and still occurring to this day is the Harlem Renaissance. The Harlem Renaissance is the cultural movement of the 1920’s. The movement essentially kindled a new black cultural identity through art, literature and intellect.

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.

African Americans living in the south during the 1900s, still witnessed hardships even though they were free. African Americans showed not only their resiliency to want to fight for themselves, but showed that they are entertaining beings, using sports, music and different art forms to show white Americans that blacks have a culture of their own. The transition of African Americans from the Great Depression to World War II lead to another great migration where many black southerners moved to northern and western states for the demand of more workers for factories. African Americans a part of the U.S army were oppressed but still had a motive to fight. Various groups such as the NAACP, helped contribute to African American

period. The Renaissance was more than a literary movement: It involved racial pride, fueled in

After World War I had ended in 1918, the United States of the 1920s and the first half of the 1930s saw the explosion of a new cultural, social, and artistic movement; a rebirth of the arts more famously known as the Harlem Renaissance. The Harlem Renaissance took place in Harlem, the northeastern part of New York City’s Manhattan borough. Nevertheless, Harlem was only a symbolic capital of the movement, as an eruption of black creativity could had also been seen in other major US cities like Chicago and Washington DC, as well as in international art centers like Paris and London. At the time, the movement was better known as ‘’The New Negro Movement’’, named after Alain Locke’s 1925 anthology. The period saw a blossoming of the African American

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.

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 Harlem Renaissance was a blossoming of African American culture, particularly in the creative arts, and the most influential movement in African American literary history. Embracing literary, musical, theatrical, and visual arts, participants sought to separate “the Negro” apart from the white stereotypes that had influenced black peoples’ relationship to their heritage and to each other. The renaissance was not dominated by a particular school of thought but it was characterized by intense debate. This movement laid the groundwork for all later African American literature and had an enormous impact on subsequent black literature and consciousness worldwide. Often, while studying the renaissance the influence of music, particularly jazz, or its value is overlooked. However, I believe jazz played a vital role in shaping this cultural movement.

The new African American culture built a lifestyle so big that White America could not look away. The African American life advanced during the Harlem Renaissance, a time for a social, cultural, and artistic boom in Harlem, New York. After the abolition of slavery, African Americans did not find the freedom they envisioned in the South, but instead a rise in white supremacy (“The”). This new form of oppression pushed the African American communities into a Great Migration where they settled in Harlem and created a new life style centered in the arts. They felt a new sense of cultural pride in their new location and often depicted their new lives in their works. Artists, musicians, and writers made careers out of their craft by “glorifying African American traditions” (“The”). Painters such as Archibald J. Motley and Palmer C. Hayden were famous for conveying the settlement of African Americans during the Harlem Renaissance and the Great Depression. Motley’s “The Picnic” and Hayden’s “Midsummer Night in Harlem”, both completed in 1936, depicted the lives of the black communities and addressed racial stereotypes.