Harlem Renaissance—1920s
Key People
Talents
Major Works
Claude McKay (1889-1948)
Marcus Garvey (1887-1940)
Jamaican-American writer/poet
Jamaican publisher, journalist,
entrepreneur, and orator
Actor, concert singer, athlete,
scholar
Poet
Home to Harlem, 1928
Universal Negro Improvement Assoc. (UNIA), Black Star
Line, Back to Africa movement
Rutgers Class of 1919
Paul Robeson (1898-1976)
Countee Cullen (1903-1946)
Zora Neal Hurston (1891-1960)
Louis Armstrong (1901-1971)
Writer, folklorist, and
anthropologist
Writer, philosopher, educator
and patron of the arts (a.k.a
“Father of the Harlem
Renaissance”)
Poet and novelist
Composer, pianist, and big band
leader
Jazz trumpeter and singer
Bessie Smith (1894-1937)
Blues singer, actress
Langston Hughes (1902-1967)
Poet, novelist, playwright, and
columnist
Jazz pianist, composer,
bandleader, organist
Dancer, singer, actress
Alain Locke (1886-1954)
Jean Toomer (1894-1967)
Duke Ellington (1899-1974)
William “Count” Basie (19041984)
Josephine Baker (1906-1975)
"I Have a Rendezvous With Life", "Yet Do I Marvel" about
racial identity and injustice.
Short stories and novels including Their Eyes Were
Watching God, 1937
Best known for his writings on and about the Harlem
Renaissance: The New Negro, 1925
Cane, 1923
Wrote over 1,000 compositions, 12 Grammies. “It Don’t
Mean a Thing (If it Ain’t Got that Swing)”
Nicknamed Satchmo, his hit records including "Stardust",
"What a Wonderful World", and “When The Saints Go
Marching In."
Nicknamed “The Empress of the Blues”, Grammy Hall of
Fame, “Downhearted Blues”
Not Without Laughter, “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” 1920
Theme songs were “One O’clock Jump,” and “April in
Paris”
Renounced her citizenship and adopted the homeland of
France. 1st black female to star in a major motion picture.