L5&6: The Harlem Renaissance
Equality and Hierarchy: The African American
Experience
Agenda
Objective:
1. To understand what the
Harlem Renaissance was.
2. To understand the
significance of the Harlem
Renaissance for the black
experience.
Schedule:
1. Group Stations Activity
2. Whole Class Discussion
Homework:
1.Consult Unit
Schedule.
Remember:
Literature
Review Due
...(Tan = Wed;
Red & Blue =
Thurs);
The Harlem Renaissance
• 1920s and 1930s
• The Harlem Renaissance was a flowering
of African American social and cultural
thought which was expressed through:
– Paintings
– Music
– Dance
– Theater
– Literature
Why the Harlem Renaissance
• During the Great Migration the majority of African
Americans who moved north ended up in New York City.
– Of the almost 750,000 African Americans who moved North,
nearly 175,000 moved to Harlem.
• The neighborhood of Harlem became a ethnic enclave of
African Americans.
– Harlem is a section of Manhattan, which covers three square
miles
• Harlem became the
largest concentration of
black people in the world.
Where is Harlem?
The island of Manhattan
New York City is on Manhattan island
Neighborhoods
Why Did the Harlem Renaissance
Emerge When and Where it Did?
1.
2.
3.
4.
Large concentration of African Americans in Harlem
Emergence of a black middle class coming out of the Great
Migration
Increased contact between African Americans and white
Americans in the workplace and on city streets forced a new
awareness of the disparity between the promise of the
American dream and reality.
Blacks WWI experience and disillusionment with race
relations in the United States
•
5.
6.
African American soldiers who served in World War I were angered by
the prejudice they often encountered back at home, compared to the
acceptance they had found in Europe.
Race riots and civil uprisings during the summer of 1919
over post-war economic tensions between blacks and whites
Rise of NAACP and Black Nationalism
The Harlem Renaissance and Whites
• The Harlem Renaissance
appealed to a mixed audience—
the African American middle class
and white consumers of the arts.
• Urbane whites suddenly took up
New York’s African-American
community, bestowing their
patronage on young artists,
opening up publishing
opportunities, and pumping cash
into Harlem’s “exotic” nightlife in
a complex relationship that
scholars continue to probe.
Understanding the Harlem
Renaissance
• In order to more fully explore the characteristics,
themes, and significance of the Harlem Renaissance
we will…
– Day One: Artistic Analysis
• Divide up into 4 groups
• Look at 4 stations each containing an artistic work by an artist
of the Harlem Renaissance era.
• As you interact with each piece.:
– Identify what the piece is saying about:
» The Black experience in America
» Black identity / Racial Consciousness
» White people / White America
» How the African American condition should be improved
» Other?
– Day Two: Whole Class Discussion
• We will discuss the characteristics, themes, and significance of
the Harlem Renaissance using your artistic analysis as our
evidence!
“If You Believe the Negro Has a Soul”
Marcus Garvey
Speech
1921
• http://historymatters.gmu.e
du/d/5124/
“I, Too, Sing America”
Langston Hughes
Poem
1945
• https://www.poets.
org/viewmedia.php
/prmMID/15615
“Take the A Train”
Duke Ellington
Jazz Composition
1939
• http://www.yo
utube.com/w
atch?v=cb2w
2m1JmCY
Jacob Lawrence
“Brownstones”
Painting
1954
Discussion!