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Harlem
Renaissance
Langston Hughes
Duke
E
llington
Zora Neale Hurston
Countee Cullen
Claude McKay
“Harlem was not so much a
place as a state of mind, the
cultural metaphor for black
America itself.”
“Harlem was like a great
magnet for the Negro
intellectual,” Langston
Hughes wrote, “pulling him
from everywhere. Once in
New York, he had to live in
Harlem.”
“The Mecca of the New
Negro” Alain Locke, 1925
Writing in 1901, the black Bostonian, William Stanley Braithwaite (a distinguished critic and poet), argued that
'We are at the commencement of a "negroid" renaissance...that will have as much importance in literary history
as much spoken of and much praised Celtic and Canadian renaissance.'
The term Harlem Renaissance refers to an artistic, cultural, and social burgeoning of writing about race
and the African American's place in American life during the early 1920s and 1930s. It's hard to put an exact date
on this period because what happened during this time--in terms of social criticism, protest, and political
advancements as well as in terms of the growing literati--was a long time in developing. Many critics date the
beginning of the Harlem Renaissance with the publication of Jean Toomer's novel Cane (1923). This novel
investigated the lower class life of the African American, who in many ways is still connected spiritually and
psychologically to slavery, as well as the life of the urbanized "New Negro," who loses sight of his spiritual heritage
because he is too intent on pursuing material things. Toomer's novel was one of the first to treat the subject of the
African American life with dignity, respect, and realism--part of the aesthetic Harlem Renaissance writers ascribed
to in writing.
Harlem was the center of urban black life. If you wanted to write, you went to Harlem. If you wanted to
dance, you went to Harlem. If you wanted to effect social change, you went to Harlem. If you wanted to compose
music, you went to Harlem. If you wanted the best chance at changing your circumstances and you were black, you
went to Harlem. It was considered the heart of the Renaissance in African American letters, hence the name The
Harlem Renaissance. It was also considered the heart of African American life, hence the designation of Harlem as
Home in most black literature of the time. Harlem stands, then, not only as a designation of a geographical area,
but also as a symbol for the best and worst qualities of African American life during the early twentieth century. If
you want to know anything about that time, then, you must first start with Harlem.
Why did the Harlem Renaissance occur? (Barbara J. Wilcots, University of Denver)
1. World War I curtailed European immigration which had been the traditional source
of industrial labor. Opened job opportunities for blacks in the North and encouraged
black migration out of the South.
2. American blacks became aware of the existence of black colonials worldwide which
initiated the concept of Pan Africanism and a hope for black unity.
3. Blacks from Africa, South America, the West Indies, and the American South
congregated in New York, particularly in Harlem.
4. Based on the work of anthropologists and experiences in WWI, whites romanticized
“primitive” cultures and “emotional openness and honesty” free of the “superego.”
5. Black veterans returning from WWI had heightened expectations for how they would
be treated.
Realities of the Harlem Renaissance:
1. It is not a “monolithic” movement – one voice, one movement, one goal.
2. A “dual” Harlem exists: Duke Ellington plays at the Cotton Club to whites, but Jim
Crow laws (de facto) exist in New York. For example, Bessie Smith sang the blues in
a beautiful dress while black mothers in Harlem lived the blues. Langston Hughes
wanted to be a poet, not a Negro poet.
3. Harlem’s poverty was economic, not spiritual.
HARLEM. The 1920s and 30s. Man. What a place, what a time--WHAT AN IDEA. It seemed to embody
(to coin a phrase from Dickens) "the best of times": when blues was hot and jazz was a growing stay in America's
culture; when speakeasies were filled with both blacks and whites dancing to the 'rhythms of life' set out by the
saxophone, trumpet, and drums; when the "New Negro" was setting his mark in politics, art, literature, music,
science, the social sciences and every aspect of American life into which he could win his way; when the industrial
North seemed to call forth African Americans out of the agrarian South and when the African Americans responded
to the call in droves, fleeing the violence and racism of the KKK and lynch law and the abject poverty of sharecropping; when it seemed as if the urban North, in cities like New York, Chicago, and Detroit, was a place where
the American Negro could finally find respite from racial prejudice, could finally hold a decent job with decent pay,
could finally become an unharassed property owner, and could finally go out dancing Saturday night without fear of
having men in white sheets shatter his fun.
BUT, if it was "the best of times," it was also "the worst of times:" though blacks and whites joined on the
dance floors at night and shared tables at the newest blues and jazz clubs, racist policies and sentiments still
separated Americans in all aspects of life; and, though whites went to the hot spots of Negro life, it was often out of
curiosity-- they wanted to watch blacks in order to see their "primitive" character and inferior mode of thinking,
living, being. Though the African American was making headway in areas formerly denied him such as the arts,
literature, sciences, etc., he often did so by repudiating the mores, manners, and lifestyles of the poorer classes of
blacks. As a result, tensions arose between the middle class and poorer blacks--the former group thought the latter
was holding back the race by remaining "common" or "niggerish" while the latter group thought the former was just
trying to erase their blackness by "acting white." And, though blacks could often find good jobs and good pay, most
were forced to become domestics or factory workers with little chance for advancement. The city life that had
promised so much did not deliver.
Timeline of the Harlem Renaissance
1919
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First Pan African Congress organized by W.E.B. Du Bois, Paris, February.
Race riots in Washington, D.C., Chicago, Charleston, Knoxville, Omaha, and elsewhere, June to September.
Race Relations Commission founded, September.
Marcus Garvey founded the Black Star Shipping Line.
Benjamin Brawley published The Negro in Literature and Art in the United States.
1920
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1921
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1922
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1923
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1924
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1925
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1926
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1927
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Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) Convention held at Madison Square Garden, August.
Charles Gilpin starred in Eugene O'Neill, The Emperor Jones, November.
James Weldon Johnson, first black officer (secretary) of NAACP appointed.
Claude McKay published Spring in New Hampshire.
Du Bois's Darkwater is published.
Shuffle Along by Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake, the first musical revue written and performed by African Americans (cast members
include Josephine Baker and Florence Mills), opened, May 22, at Broadway's David Belasco Theater.
Marcus Garvey founded African Orthodox Church, September.
Second Pan African Congress.
Colored Players Guild of New York founded.
Benjamin Brawley published Social History of the American Negro.
First Anti-Lynching legislation approved by House of Representatives.
Publications of The Book of American Negro Poetry edited by James Weldon Johnson
Claude McKay, Harlem Shadows.
Opportunity: A Journal of Negro Life is founded by the National Urban League, ed.Charles S. Johnson
National Ethiopian Art Players staged The Chip Woman's Fortune by Willis Richardson, first serious play by a black writer on
Broadway, May.
Claude McKay spoke at the Fourth Congress of the Third International in Moscow, June.
The Cotton Club opened, Fall.
Marcus Garvey arrested for mail fraud and sentenced to five years in prison.
Third Pan African Congress.
Publication of Jean Toomer’s Cane
Publication of Marcus Garvey, Philosophy and Opinion of Marcus Garvey
Civic Club Dinner, sponsored by Opportunity, bringing black writers and white publishers together, March 21. This event is
considered the formal launching of the New Negro movement.
Jesse Fauset not only edited (from 1919 to 1926) the literary section of The Crisis, she also hosted evening gatherings for the black
intellectuals of Harlem: artists, thinkers, writers.
Dorothy Randolph Peterson, a teacher and arts patron, used her father's Brooklyn home for literary salons.
Paul Robeson starred in O'Neill's All God's Chillun Got Wings, May 15.
Countee Cullen won first prize in the Witter Bynner Poetry Competition.
Publication of Du Bois, The Gift of Black Folk
Publication of Jessie Fauset, There is Confusion
Publication of Marcus Garvey, Aims and Objects for a Solution of the NegroProblem Outlined
Publication of Walter White, The Fire in the Flint.
Survey Graphic issue, "Harlem: Mecca of the New Negro," edited by Alain Locke and Charles Johnson, devoted entirely to black
arts and letters, March.
Jean Toomer lectured on Gurdjieff's methods in Harlem. The lectures attracted stars of the Harlem Renaissance including writers
Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Wallace Thurman, Nella Larsen, Harold Jackman (a teacher and activist), Rudolph
Fisher, Dorothy West (writer), Dorothy Peterson, and Aaron Douglass (the painter). Langston Hughes writes in his Gurdjieff in
Harlem
American Negro Labor Congress held in Chicago, October.
Opportunity holds its first literary awards dinner; winners include Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen and Zora Neale Hurston.
The first Crisis awards ceremony is held at the Renaissance Casino; Countee Cullen wins first prize.
Publication of Countee Cullen, Color
Publication of Du Bose Heyward, Porgy
Publication of James Weldon Johnson and J. Rosamond Johnson, eds. The Book of American Negro Spirituals
Publication of Alain Locke, The New Negro
Publication of Sherwood Anderson, Dark Laughter (a novel showing Black life).
Countee Cullen becomes Ass’t. Ed. of Opportunity; begins to write a regular column The Dark Tower.
Savoy Ballroom opened in Harlem, March.
Publication of Wallace Thurman, Fire!!
Publication of Langston Hughes, The Weary Blues
Publication of Carl Van Vechten, Tropic Death
Publication of W. C. Handy, Blues: An Anthology
Publication of Walter White, Flight.
In Abraham's Bosom by Paul Green, with an all-black cast, won the Pulitzer Prize, May.
Ethel Waters first appeared on Broadway, July.
Marcus Garvey deported.
Louis Armstrong in Chicago and Duke Ellington in New York began their careers.
Harlem Globetrotters established.
Charlotte Mason decides to become a patron of The New Negro.
Publication of Miguel Covarrubias, Negro Drawings
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1928
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1929
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Publication of Countee Cullen, Ballad of the Brown Girl, Copper Sun, Caroling Dusk
Publication of Arthur Fauset, For Freedom: A Biographical Story of the American Negro
Publication of Langston Hughes, Fine Clothes to the Jew
Publication of James Weldon Johnson, God's Trombones: Seven Negro Sermons in Verse, The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man
Publication of Alain Locke and Montgomery T. Gregory, eds. Plays of Negro Life.
Countee Cullen marries Nina Yolande, daughter of W.E.B. Du Bois; “social event of the decade”
Publication of Wallace Thurman, Harlem: A Forum of Negro Life
Publication of Du Bois, The Dark Princess
Publication of Rudolph Fisher, The Walls of Jericho
Publication of Nella Larsen, Quicksand
Publication of Jessie Fauset, Plum Bun
Publication of Claude Mc Kay, Home to Harlem.
Negro Experimental Theatre founded, February; Negro Art Theatre founded, June; National Colored Players founded, September.
Wallace Thurman's play Harlem, written with William Jourdan Rapp, opens at the Apollo Theater; becomes hugely successful.
Black Thursday, October 29, Stock Exchange crash.
Publication of Countee Cullen, The Black Christ and Other Poems
Publication of Claude McKay, Banjo
Publication of Nella Larsen, Passing
Wallace Thurman, The Blacker the Berry
http://www.africanamericans.com/PaulRobeson.htm
(excellent discussion of singer, actor, activist,
Rutgers’ graduate Paul Robeson)
Extracts from 'Re/Birth' of a Nation by Richard J. Powelland
Harlem on Our Minds by Henry Louis Gates Jr.
Rhapsodies in Black: Art of the Harlem Renaissance (London/California: Hayward Gallery,
Institute of International Visual Arts and University of California Press, 1997).
www.iniva.org/harlem/hren.html