Harlem Renaissance

By: Max Rapkin

Harlem ... HarlemBlack, black HarlemSouls of Black Folk

Ask Du BoisLittle grey restless feet

Ask Claude McKayCity of Refuge

Ask Rudolph FisherDon't damn your body's itch

Ask Countee CullenDoes the jazz band sob?

Ask Langston HughesNigger Heaven

Ask Carl Van VechtenHey! ... Hey!

" ... Say it brotherSay it ..."

- Frank Horne, "Harlem"

Literary Period

• The Harlem Renaissance was an expression of African-American social thought and culture which took a place in newly-formed Black community in neighborhood of Harlem.

• The Harlem Renaissance flourished from early 1920 to1940 and was expressed through every cultural medium-visual art, dance, music, theatre, literature, poetry, history, and politics.

Continued

Instead of using direct political means, African-American artists, writers, and musicians employed culture to work for goals of civil rights and equality.

The Harlem Renaissance featured some of the biggest names in African American history, such as W.E.B. Dubois, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, and Marcus Garvey.

Continued…

• . Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston contributed with art while Dubois and Garvey helped on the political front.

• During the World War II of 1914-1918, many rural Americans from the South headed to the industrial North for employment opportunities which led to the Harlem Renaissance.

Social Elements

• The center of this movement was in New York, where three of the largest civil rights groups established their headquarters.

• W.E.B Du Bois, with the collaboration of others, founded the NAACP in 1909 to “promote civil rights and fight African-American disenfranchisement”

Continued

• At the same time, Marcus Garvey began his promotion of the “Back to Africa Movement”

• Garvey also founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League which advocated the unification of all African Americans in an attempt to increase racial pride.

Continued…

• A third group known as the National Urban League also came to be in the early 20th

century. • Together, these groups helped to establish a

sense of community and empowerment for African-Americans not only in New York, but also around the country, and it allowed a chance at desegregation.

Religious Elements

• The Harlem Renaissance inspired religion to flourish into many different natures during this time.

• Neo-orthodox approaches to traditional Christianity became popular.

• In 1919, W. E. B. Dubois organized the first Pan African Congress.

Continued

• Garvey organized the African Orthodox Church.

• This religious creation helped to distinguish Orthodox Christianity in Africa.

• Later in 1926, Charles A. Tiney became the first African American to write and publish church hymns.

Continued…

• However, the style of Tradition Gospel was created by Thomas A. Dorsey, and it combined blues, and hymns.

• Thomas A. Dorsey’s contribution to the Harlem Renaissance earned him the name "The Father of Gospel.”

Political Elements

• Two men by the names of Marcus Garvey and W.E.B. Dubois led the Harlem Renaissance on the political front.

• Marcus Garvey founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association.

Continued

• Garvey was elected by its council to be President of the association.

• Garvey had a Black Nationalist philosophy and was a proponent of the black migration “back to Africa.”

Continued…

• Dubois was the leading black politician and philosopher during the Harlem Renaissance.

• While Garvey wanted the black community to separate from the white community, Dubois supported “integration rather than separation” and felt that Garvey’s ideas would only lead blacks to turmoil.

Artistic Elements

• Prominent Harlem Renaissance artists include William H. Johnson, Lois Mailou Jones and Sergeant Claude Johnson.

• Aaron Douglas was the Harlem Renaissance artist whose work best exemplified the New Negro philosophy.

Continued

• He painted murals for public buildings and produced illustrations and cover designs for many black publications including The Crisis and Opportunity.

• In 1940 he moved to Nashville, Tennessee, where he founded the Art Department at Fisk University.

Continued…

• Aaron Douglas is considered to be a "father of Afro-American Art.”

• Other prominent artists associated with the Harlem Renaissance are Romare Bearden, Jacob Lawrence, and Archibald Motley and later influenced by the movement artists: Charles Sebree, John Biggers, Hale Woodruff, Beauford Delaney and Ernie Barnes.

Examples of H.R. art

Prominent Figures

More Quotes

• "Hold fast to your dreams, for without them life is a broken winged bird that cannot fly.“

• "Humor is laughing at what you haven't got when you ought to have it.“

• "In every truth, the beneficiaries of a system cannot be expected to destroy it."