Harlem Renaissance

Common Themes

• Alienation• Marginality• Folk material• Blues tradition• Difficulty Writing for Elite audience

What Was it?•Cultural, Social, artistic explosion•End of wwI – Mid 1930s•Halrem – Cultural Center•Black writers, artists, Musicians, Photographers, poets, Scholars•Racial Pride – “New Negro”•Outcome – Black Pride – Little affect on barriers created by Jim crow Laws

Important Elements/People • The Great Migration (1900-1970)– Traveling South for survival– 1900s – move toward north – trains–WWI

• Workers needed in factories• Chicago encouraged blacks to migrate• Southerners start to worry – losing “work force”

–Migration – saw as “fulfillment of God’s promise”• North = Promised Land

– Jazz Musicians – Chicago, Kansas City, New York– 1910-1970 – est. 6 million blacks migrated

north

Important People/Elements continued

• Marcus Garvey– “the back to africa” movement– 1911 – London

• Booker t. Washington’s Up from slavery

– 1914 – Jamaica• Starts Universal Negro Improvement Assoc. (U.N.i.a.)

– Objectives» 1)» 2)

– 1916 –Harlem for support– 1919 – Black Star Line– 1922 – Edward Clarke – political move

Important People/Elements continued

• W.E.B. Du Bois– “twoness” – 1895 – 1st African American – ph.d in

history – harvard– focus of study – “black life in american”– 1898-1910 – hope in social science– Challenged booker’s ideology– Naacp – director of research– Editor of The Crisis– Coined “the talented tenth”

Important People/Elements continued

• The Crisis– Offical publication of naacp– 1,000 readers first year– 100,000 by eight year– Criticized those against equal rights

• President Woodrow wilson

– Promoted arts/Harlem renaissance• Claude mCkay• Langston hughes• James weldon johnson

Harlem – 1920s

Harlem – 1920s

Harlem 1920s

Harlem – 1920s

Literature of the Harlem Renaissance

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