Harlem Renaissance
- Great Migration
- Development of the black middle class
- Harlem developed into the political and cultural center of black America
- A new political agenda advocating racial equality
Who were the important people in the Harlem Renaissance?
People who made important contributions to the Harlem Renaissance.pptx
- the Black rural South like few others. Her love of the South came from her own
- idyllic upbringing came to an end when she turned 13 and her beloved mother died,
- her way north to Harlem, becoming a friend of Hughes. The two collaborated on a. ...
What are some interesting facts about the Harlem Renaissance?
Did You Know?
- During the Great Migration over 175,000 African-Americans moved to Harlem.
- For a while, Harlem was seen as the center of African-American life in the U.S.
- The end of Prohibition in 1933 meant that white patrons no longer looked for the illegal alcohol and social scene of Harlem clubs, helping to end the Harlem Renaissance.
What is significant about the Harlem Renaissance?
Why was the Harlem Renaissance significant? The Harlem Renaissance was a turning point in Black cultural history. It helped African American writers and artists gain more control over the representation of Black culture and experience, and it provided them a place in Western high culture.
What caused the Harlem Renaissance?
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Who was the most important contributor to the Harlem Renaissance?
Langston Hughes (1901-1967) As the most influential and widely celebrated voice of the Harlem Renaissance, Hughes also wrote essays, novels, short stories and plays, all of which centered and celebrated Black life and pride in African American heritage.
When did the Harlem Renaissance begin?
1920Harlem Renaissance / Began approximately
Which reason was one important factor that contributed to Harlem?
Which reason was one important factor that contributed to Harlem becoming the epicenter of the renaissance for African American artists? It had many cafes. It was a popular tourist destination.
Where did the Harlem Renaissance begin?
The Harlem Renaissance was the development of the Harlem neighborhood in New York City as a Black cultural mecca in the early 20th Century and the subsequent social and artistic explosion that resulted.
Which of the following was a major contribution of the Harlem Renaissance to US culture?
Which of the following was a major contribution of the Harlem Renaissance to U.S. culture? It established jazz as a prominent musical form.
How did the great migration contribute to the development of the Harlem Renaissance?
The greater economic and educational opportunities led to an explosion of artistic expression in music and literature. Migrants and their children created the Harlem Renaissance, changed the sound of the blues music that they brought north with them, desegregated sports, and became involved in politics.
What were the key elements of the Harlem Renaissance?
The Harlem Renaissance (c. 1918–37) was the most influential movement in African American literary history. The movement also included musical, theatrical, and visual arts. The Harlem Renaissance was unusual among literary and artistic movements for its close relationship to civil rights and reform organizations.
How did music influence the Harlem Renaissance?
The syncopated rhythms and improvisation in Blues music attracted new listeners during the Harlem Renaissance. This unique sound meant that no two performances would sound the same. Bessie Smith and Billie Holiday popularized Blues and jazz vocals at this time.
What were the key elements of the Harlem Renaissance quizlet?
Terms in this set (16) Great Migration. Development of the black middle class. Harlem developed into the political and cultural center of black America. A new political agenda advocating racial equality.
What was the Harlem Renaissance?
The Harlem Renaissance was an intellectual and cultural revival of African American music, dance, art, fashion, literature, theater and politics centered in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, spanning the 1920s and 1930s. At the time, it was known as the " New Negro Movement ", ...
What was the first stage of the Harlem Renaissance?
The first stage of the Harlem Renaissance started in the late 1910s. In 1917, the premiere of Granny Maumee, The Rider of Dreams, Simon the Cyrenian: Plays for a Negro Theater took place. These plays, written by white playwright Ridgely Torrence, featured African-American actors conveying complex human emotions and yearnings. They rejected the stereotypes of the blackface and minstrel show traditions. James Weldon Johnson in 1917 called the premieres of these plays "the most important single event in the entire history of the Negro in the American Theater".
What did the majority of African Americans do during the reconstruction era?
During the Reconstruction Era, the emancipated African Americans, freedmen, began to strive for civic participation, political equality and economic and cultural self-determination.
What was the Harlem Stride style?
A new way of playing the piano called the Harlem Stride style was created during the Harlem Renaissance, and helped blur the lines between the poor African Americans and socially elite African Americans. The traditional jazz band was composed primarily of brass instruments and was considered a symbol of the south, but the piano was considered an instrument of the wealthy. With this instrumental modification to the existing genre, the wealthy African Americans now had more access to jazz music. Its popularity soon spread throughout the country and was consequently at an all-time high.
What was the role of Christianity in the Harlem Renaissance?
Christianity played a major role in the Harlem Renaissance. Many of the writers and social critics discussed the role of Christianity in African-American lives. For example, a famous poem by Langston Hughes, "Madam and the Minister", reflects the temperature and mood towards religion in the Harlem Renaissance.
How did the Harlem Renaissance impact the African American experience?
The Harlem Renaissance was successful in that it brought the Black experience clearly within the corpus of American cultural history. Not only through an explosion of culture, but on a sociological level, the legacy of the Harlem Renaissance redefined how America, and the world, viewed African Americans. The migration of southern Blacks to the north changed the image of the African American from rural, undereducated peasants to one of urban, cosmopolitan sophistication. This new identity led to a greater social consciousness, and African Americans became players on the world stage, expanding intellectual and social contacts internationally.
When did Harlem become an African American neighborhood?
Harlem became an African-American neighborhood in the early 1900s. In 1910, a large block along 135th Street and Fifth Avenue was bought by various African-American realtors and a church group. Many more African Americans arrived during the First World War.
What was the Harlem Renaissance?
The Harlem Renaissance was a movement during which African American culture drastically flourished, as it developed artistically, socially, and intellectually. Throughout this era, which was also known as the dawn of the “New Negro”, black New Yorkers decided to step against the prior oppression and subordination that they had experienced due ...
How did African Americans influence the Harlem Renaissance?
During the Harlem Renaissance, African Americans uplifted their culture through new art. This was the first time that they truly embraced creativity. Black artists expressed themselves, their interests, and the greatness of their race by creating new sculptures and paintings.
How did the Black New Yorkers in Harlem recreate their identity?
Black New Yorkers in Harlem recreated their identity through literature as well. Perhaps it was through this literature that African Americans portrayed their determination to gain rights and respect most clearly. Through their art and music, they displayed the innovation and creativity of their unique culture.
What is the Studio Museum in Harlem?
Today, the Studio Museum in Harlem displays a variety of both local and international art that has been inspired by African American culture, and reflects the creativity of the Renaissance era. African American culture was further defined and improved by musicians during this era. In particular, jazz music was an iconic category ...
What did the Blacks do through their art and music?
Through their art and music, they displayed the innovation and creativity of their unique culture. Although they did so in their writing as well, they utilized their intellectual skills to take a stand against stereotypes, racism, and inequality, and to demand justice, respect and equality for all blacks.
Why did the Black people of New York City come together?
Although many of the black residents of New York City were previously slaves and had experienced significant oppression and brokenness in the past, they came together to intentionally create a better life for themselves in Harlem.
Where did jazz originate?
In particular, jazz music was an iconic category of the New Negro movement, and was indigenous to African American culture. Although jazz originated in New Orleans decades prior to the Renaissance, talented black musicians, such as Louis Armstrong, brought this up and coming form of music to Harlem during the twenties.
What was the movement that inspired the anti-colonial movement?
The movement inspired anti-colonial and anti-assimilationist movements such as Negritude, a literary movement that began in Paris as a protest against French colonial rule and assimilation. Increased involvement of Black actors and playwrights in American theater occurred. The Weary Blues.
Who designed the dust jacket for Langston Hughes?
This dust jacket was designed by Mexican illustrator and writer Miguel Covarrubias for Langston Hughes's The Weary Blues (1926), a book of poetry published by Alfred A. Knopf. The renaissance also opened doors of major American publishing houses to Black authors.
How do you know when the Harlem Renaissance began?
First, to know when the Harlem Renaissance began, we must determine its origins. Understanding the origins depends on how we perceive the nature of the Renaissance. For those who view the Renaissance as primarily a literary movement, the Civic Club Dinner of March 21, 1924, signaled its emergence.
Who is the specialist in the Harlem Renaissance?
In his remarks, Wintz addresses the origins and nature of the movement—a task, he says, that is far more complex than it may seem. Wintz is a specialist in the Harlem Renaissance and in African American political thought.
What was the action in Harlem during World War I?
Harlem and New York City also contained the infrastructure to support and sustain the arts. In the early twentieth century, New York had replaced Boston as the center of the book publishing industry.
What city was the cultural center of the Black community?
Although the old black social elites of Washington, DC, and Philadelphia were disdainful of Harlem's vulgar splendor, and while it housed no significant black university as did Washington, Philadelphia, Atlanta, and Nashville, Harlem still became the race's cultural center and a Mecca for its aspiring young.
Why did realtors take advantage of declining property values in Harlem?
Both black and white realtors took advantage of declining property values in Harlem—the panic selling that resulted when blacks moved in. Addressing the demand for housing generated by the city's rapidly growing black population, they acquired, subdivided, and leased Harlem property to black tenants.
What is the Negro American?
The Negro American was a Harlem Renaissance era magazine published in San Antonio, Texas, that declared itself to be "the only magazine in the South devoted to Negro life and culture.". This particular issue includes a review of Rudolph Fisher's novel The Walls of Jericho (page 13). Courtesy of Michael L. Gillette.
What was the center of the black nightlife in the mid-1920s?
Marcus Garvey launched his ill-fated black nationalist movement among its masses, and Harlem became the geographical focal point of African American literature, art, music, and theater. Its night clubs, music halls, and jazz joints became the center of New York nightlife in the mid-1920s.
What was the Harlem Renaissance?
The Harlem Renaissance. was born out of necessity, circumstance, and creativity. As one of the most influential movements in African-American history, The Harlem Renaissance strengthened the foundation of what we have come to know as “the culture.”.
What was the purpose of the Black Upper Class?
A Black Upper Class emerged and with it came a mission to document the experience of African-American’s like never before, and provide space for the work of a Black creative Class —this was especially true in Harlem.
What inspired your favorite artist?
In short: your favorite artist’s, favorite artist was likely inspired by a creative whose work contributed to The Harlem Renaissance and the defining of OUR culture. The Harlem Renaissance was bigger than the Harlem district in New York City.
Who was the first editor-in-chief of the National Urban Leagues?
Charles S. Johnson, the first editor-in-chief of the National Urban Leagues’ academic journal, captured Black culture and provided opportunities for new artists. Alain LeRoy Locke and The New Negro anthologized African and African-American art and literature, while simultaneously providing a manifesto for the New Negro Movement ...
Was the Harlem Renaissance bigger than the Harlem district?
The Harlem Renaissance was bigger than the Harlem district in New York City. A lot happened between the years of 1918 and 1937, and for every inch gained in Harlem, a mile was being traveled by Black people elsewhere in America to escape disenfranchisement and Jim Crow laws.
Who were the main contributors to the Harlem Renaissance?
Principal contributors to the Harlem Renaissance included not only well-established literary figures, such as Du Bois and James Weldon Johnson, but also new young writers, such as Jean Toomer, Countee Cullen, and Langston Hughes.
What was the Harlem Renaissance?
The Harlem Renaissance (c. 1918–37) was the most influential movement in African American literary history. The movement also included musical, theatrical, and visual arts. The Harlem Renaissance was unusual among literary and artistic movements for its close relationship to civil rights and reform organizations.
Where did African Americans settle in the 19th century?
Beginning about 1916, a large number of African Americans moved from the rural American South and settled in the urban North and West. One of the communities where African Americans settled during this Great Migration was Harlem, in New York, New York. Countee Cullen. Poet Countee Cullen was one of the major figures of the Harlem Renaissance.
Who was the poet who was a major figure in the Harlem Renaissance?
Poet Countee Cullen was one of the major figures of the Harlem Renaissance. Carl Van Vechten Collection/Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (Digital File No. cph 3a42847) After World War I Harlem became a thriving center of African American culture.
Who was the photographer who influenced Langston Hughes?
Photographer James VanDerZee ’s portraits become a visual chronicle of the Harlem Renaissance. Langston Hughes: influence of the blues on Langston Hughes's poetry. George B. Hutchinson, author of Harlem Renaissance in Black and White, speaking about Langston Hughes's use of the blues to create poetry. Courtesy of Steven Watson, author of The Harlem ...
Who urged blacks to accept discrimination for the time being and elevate themselves through hard work and economic gain?
Booker T. Washington had urged Blacks to accept discrimination for the time being and elevate themselves through hard work and economic gain, thus winning the respect of whites. Du Bois argued that Washington’s strategy, rather than freeing Blacks from oppression, would serve only to perpetuate it. Opportunity.
Who was the first African American poet?
Claude McKay is generally considered the first major poet of the Harlem Renaissance. His militant poem “If We Must Die” (1919) is one of the most-quoted works of African American literature of this time period. Alain Locke. Alain Locke. Courtesy of Howard University, Washington, D.C.
When did the Harlem Renaissance start?
The collection of talent, all within a few city blocks, became known as the Harlem Renaissance. Lasting between the 1910s and the mid-1930s, the influence of the time is still felt today. Here are nine of the most prominent figures of the cultural movement:
What did Dunbar Nelson do for the Harlem Renaissance?
Dunbar Nelson is also credited for helping establish the White Rose Mission in Harlem, a Christian, nonsectarian Home for Colored Girls and Women.
What was the Hughes turning inward?
During the twenties when most American poets were turning inward, writing obscure and esoteric poetry to an ever decreasing audience of readers, Hughes was turning outward, using language and themes, attitudes and ideas familiar to anyone who had the ability simply to read.”.
What was Louis Armstrong known for?
Known as one of the founding fathers of jazz, Louis Armstrong revolutionized the genre with the work that came out of the Harlem Renaissance. Growing up in New Orleans, Armstrong was constantly exposed to some of the best jazz musicians in the country.
What did African Americans contribute to the Great Migration?
These African American leaders left a lasting mark with their contributions in music, art, literature and so much more. As the Great Migration of African Americans made its way north, New York City’s Harlem neighborhood became a vibrant hotspot for musicians, writers, entertainers and thinkers.
Who was the leader of the Renaissance?
Langston Hughes. Photo: CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images. One of the leaders of the Renaissance, Langston Hughes made his mark by using his art to show the universal experience of the Black community.
Who is the Empress of the Blues?
Bessie Smith became known as the “Empress of the Blues” thanks to her captivating and powerful vocals. Smith was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and was working as a blues singer by the time she was 18. She soon joined the Rabbit Foot Minstrels and met the legendary Ma Rainey, who took Smith under her wing.

Overview
The Harlem Renaissance was an intellectual and cultural revival of African American music, dance, art, fashion, literature, theater, politics and scholarship centered in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, spanning the 1920s and 1930s. At the time, it was known as the "New Negro Movement", named after The New Negro, a 1925 anthology edited by Alain Locke. The movement also included t…
Background
Until the end of the Civil War, the majority of African Americans had been enslaved and lived in the South. During the Reconstruction Era, the emancipated African Americans, freedmen, began to strive for civic participation, political equality and economic and cultural self-determination. Soon after the end of the Civil War the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871 gave rise to speeches by African-Americ…
Development
During the early portion of the 20th century, Harlem was the destination for migrants from around the country, attracting both people from the South seeking work and an educated class who made the area a center of culture, as well as a growing "Negro" middle class. These people were looking for a fresh start in life and this was a good place to go. The district had originally been developed in the 19th century as an exclusive suburb for the white middle and upper middle classes; its affl…
Characteristics and themes
Characterizing the Harlem Renaissance was an overt racial pride that came to be represented in the idea of the New Negro, who through intellect and production of literature, art, and music could challenge the pervading racism and stereotypes to promote progressive or socialist politics, and racial and social integration. The creation of art and literature would serve to "uplift" the race.
Influence
The Harlem Renaissance was successful in that it brought the Black experience clearly within the corpus of American cultural history. Not only through an explosion of culture, but on a sociological level, the legacy of the Harlem Renaissance redefined how America, and the world, viewed African Americans. The migration of southern Blacks to the north changed the image of the Africa…
Works associated with the Harlem Renaissance
• Blackbirds of 1928
• Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance (book)
• The New Negro: The Life of Alain Locke
• Shuffle Along, musical
See also
• Black Arts Movement, 1960s and 1970s
• Black Renaissance in D.C.
• Chicago Black Renaissance
• List of female entertainers of the Harlem Renaissance
External links
• "A Guide to Harlem Renaissance Materials", from the Library of Congress
• Bryan Carter (ed.). "Virtual Harlem". University of Illinois at Chicago, Electronic Visualization Laboratory.
• "The Approaching 100th Anniversary of the Harlem Renaissance", by HR historian Aberjhani
What Was The Harlem Renaissance and When Did It Begin?
Time
Place
- Situating the Harlem Renaissance in space is almost as complex as defining its origins and time span. Certainly Harlem is central to the Harlem Renaissance, but it serves more as an anchor for the movement than as its sole location. In reality, the Harlem Renaissance both drew from and spread its influence across the United States, the Caribbean, and the world. Only a handful of th…
Renaissance
- So, what was the Harlem Renaissance? The simple answer is that the Harlem Renaissance (or the New Negro Movement, or whatever name is preferred) was the most important event in twentieth-century African American intellectual and cultural life. While best known for its literature, it touched every aspect of African American literary and artistic creativity from the end of World W…
Slow Fade to Black
- The end of the Harlem Renaissance is as difficult to define as its beginnings. It varies somewhat from one artistic field to another. In musical theater, the popularity of black musical reviews died out by the early 1930s, although there were occasional efforts, mostly unsuccessful, to revive the genre. However, black performers and musicians continued to work, although not so often in all …
What Was The Harlem Renaissance and Why Was It Important?
- While at its core it was primarily a literary movement, the Harlem Renaissance touched all of the African American creative arts. While its participants were determined to truthfully represent the African American experience and believed in racial pride and equality, they shared no common political philosophy, social belief, artistic style, or aest...