Download Langston Hughes Poem: "I, Too"

Chapter 21: Section 4
The Harlem Renaissance
What was the Harlem Renaissance?
• Flowering of a unique African
American identity and culture
• Redefined African American
expression
• Artistic and literary movement
of African-American culture
during the 1920s and 1930s
• Produced famous writers such
as Langston Hughes
• Famous musicians such as
Louis Armstrong and Duke
Ellington.
What led to the Harlem Renaissance?
• The Great Migration
o Locke: "something like a spiritual emancipation"
• Rise of radical black intellectuals
o Locke, Marcus Garvey, W.E.B. DuBois
o New African American goals
The Great Migration
• Between 1910 and 1920,
hundreds of thousands of
African Americans moved
north
• Went to big cities looking
for jobs
• By the end of decade, 40%
of African Americans lived
in urban cities
Tension in the North
• Northern cities didn't welcome this massive influx of
African Americans
• Tensions escalated
• Summer of 1919: About 25 urban race riots
• Led to an increased desire to improve African Americans'
situation
African-American Goals: NAACP
• Founded in 1909
• Urged African Americans to
protest racial violence
• W.E.B. DuBois: Founding
member of NAACP
o Led parade to protest such
violence
o Led struggle for civil rights
• James Weldon Johnson: leader
of NAACP
o fought for legislation to
protect African American
rights
o Antilynching laws made
priority
• New, more militant voice of
African Americans
African American Goals: Marcus Garvey
and the UNIA
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
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Believed African Americans should build separate society
Different, more radical message of black pride
UNIA founded in 1914
Appealed to followers with messages of pride, mass
meetings, parades, etc.
Practical plans to promote African American businesses
Encouraged followers to return to Africa
Support declined in mid-1920's
Left behind legacy of newly awakened black pride,
independence, and celebration of heritage
Harlem, New York
• Many who migrated north
moved to Harlem
• World's largest African American
urban community
• Overcrowding, unemployment,
and poverty persisted
• Problems in the 1920s were
eclipsed by a flowering of
creativity... the Harlem
Renaissance
• Became a center of culture and
creativity
African American Writers
• Above all, the Harlem Renaissance was a literary
movement
• Led by well-educated, middle class African Americans
• Expressed new pride in African American experience
• Celebrated heritage and wrote about life's trials
African American Writers:
•
Langston Hughes
o An African American poet
o His poetry moved to the
tempo of jazz
o Poems described the
difficult lives of workingclass African Americans
o He embraced his African
American culture and
background while living in
a white dominated society
Langston Hughes Poem: "I, Too"
I, too, sing America.
I am the darker brother.
They send me to eat in the
kitchen
When company comes,
But I laugh,
And eat well,
And grow strong.
Tomorrow,
I'll be at the table
When company comes.
Nobody'll dare
Say to me,
"Eat in the kitchen,"
Then.
Besides,
They'll see how beautiful I am
And be ashamed-I, too, am America.
African American Writers:
Claude McKay
• Novelist and poet with militant voice
• Urged African Americans to resist prejudice and
discrimination
• Wrote about the pain of life as a black man in a "white
world"
African American Writers:
Zora Neale Hurston
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Novelist and poet
portrayed lives of poor, unschooled southern blacks
"the greatest cultural wealth of the continent"
Celebrated the common-people's art: the folkways and
values of those who survived slavery
African American Performers
• The Harlem Renaissance was more than writers and
intellectuals
• Performers gained large followings
• Roland Hayes: concert singer
• Ethel Waters: singer and actress on Broadway
• Raul Robeson: major dramatic actor
African Americans and Jazz
• Jazz was born in the early 20th century in New Orleans, where
musicians blended instrumental ragtime and vocal bluse into an
exuberant new sound.
• It quickly spread to cities such as Kansas City, Memphis, and New
York CIty, and it became a popular music for dancing.
• During the 1920s, Harlem pulsed the sounds of jazz, luring
admirers of the music to places such as the Apollo Theater and
Cotton Club.
• Famous artist included Louis Armstrong,
Bessie Smith, Duke Ellington, and many more.
Duke Ellington
Louis Armstrong
Bessie Smith