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 20.3-
African
American
Culture of
the 1920’s
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The Great Migration: millions of African Americans
relocated from the South to the urban North during
WWI and the 1920’s in hopes of a better life and better
future.
Thousands of them moved to upper Manhattan, New
York City, in the neighborhood of Harlem.
It was here that African Americans created an
environment with the use of art, racial pride, sense of
community, and political organization known as the
Harlem Renaissance.
Expressions of African-American culture like jazz,
blues, and literature in which novelists, poets, and
artists celebrated their black culture through their
work.
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Claude McKay was a famous writer of
this era (Harlem Shadows), and he was
quite militant in his literature, focusing
mainly on the issue of racial inequality.
Langston Hughes (poet) was the most
powerful African American voice of this
time; he focused less on racial tensions
and more on celebrating African
American culture.
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African Americans gave
the 1920’ the nickname
“the Jazz Age.”
Jazz music which
combined different forms
of music, such as blues
and popular European
music.
Louis Armstrong became
the leading figure of the
Jazz Age.
Duke Ellington was a
composer, pianist, and
bandleader who was also
very influential during
the Jazz Age.
Ellington got his start at
the Cotton Club, a very
famous NYC nightclub.
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Blues, a soulful style of music that evolved
from African American spirituals, became very
popular throughout the Harlem Renaissance
and the Jazz Age.
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In cities such as New York and Chicago, African
Americans had a growing political voice.
Blacks in large numbers created quite a powerful
voting bloc in northern cities.
This was evident with the election of Oscar DePriest,
the first black senator from a northern state (Ill.)
The most prominent leader of the 1920’s was Marcus
Garvey.
He argued that blacks were oppressed in the U.S.
and led a “Back to Africa” movement through his
idea of “Black Nationalism.”
He advocated the separation of the white and black
races.