Harlem Renaissance

The Harlem Renaissance (HR) was an intellectual revival of African-American (A-A) art and literature centred around Harlem. Manhattan, New York City, covering the 1920s. It was originally named as the New Negro Movement after The New Negro (1925) written by Alain Locke.*

Although it was centred around the Harlem neighbourhood black French speaking writers from the Caribbean and African colonies, who lived in Paris, were also influenced.
The Stock Market crash in 1929 and the Great Depression, began to bring it to a close.

After the 1865 Civil War 1000s of newly freed A-A began to dream. Unfortunately white supremacy was quickly restored. Many blacks were exploited. A Great Migration began to the north and mid-west. 100s of 1000s A-As relocated…

175, 000 A-As moved to Harlem, Manhattan- the largest concentration of A-As in the world. Others went to Chicago, Cleveland, Los Angeles, Detroit and Philadelphia. There was astonishing array of talent - artists, musicians and scholars. All were determined to forge a new identity as free people.

At the height of the movement Harlem was the epicentre of A-A culture. It bustled with A-A owned publishing houses and newspapers, music companies , nightclubs and cabarets. Literature (poetry and prose), music (jazz, swing, opera and dance) and fashion defined as ‘cool’ to blacks and whites alike. Plus painting and sculpture.

4 significant contributors to HR.

James Mercer Langston Hughes (1901-67) was an American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright and columnist. He is best known as the leader of HR.
He dropped out of University but he gained notice from New York publishers, first in The Crisis magazine. He was one of the early innovators of the new literacy art form called jazz poetry. He famously wrote about the HR period.

Alain LeRoy Locke (1885-1954) was an American writer, philosopher, educator, and patron of the arts. He graduated from Harvard and in 1907 he became the first M-M Rhodes Scholar.
In 1925 he wrote an article in the Survey Graphic which developed into The New Negro - a collection of writings by him and other A-As. It was an instant success and later acclaimed ‘the first National’ book of A-As… He was a very influential A-A .

Alain mentored Zora Neale Hurston.
Zora (1891-1960) was an American author, collector of A-A folklore and a film maker. Aged 26 went back to school saying she was 16! She arrived in New York (1925) when HR was at its zenith. In 1926 helped to produce literary magazine *Fire! In 1931 wrote Barracoon. story of Cudio Kazoola Lewis - a former slave
Their Eyes Were Watching (1937) most popular of her 4 books. She wrote more then 50 short stories, plays and essays but struggled with debt and poverty.

Josephine Baker (1906-75) was an American born French entertainer. With her banana skirt she was a symbol of the Jazz Age and the Roaring 20s.

W.EB Du Bois and The Crisis magazine ( separate file)