Harlem Renaissance
• Where: New York City, Harlem
• When: 1920-1930
• Why: A safe place for African Americans
to explore new identities as free women
and men
Works Cited
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlem
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/iraas/harlem/
http://www.harlem.org/
Harlem
• What: African American neighborhood
• Where: New York City borough of Manhattan
• Why: Dutch village in 1658
Mass migration of blacks in 1904
Real estate crash
Great migration
How did it become the mecca for the African
American Artists?
• Harlem was the birth of cultural
revolution
• “The Capitol of Black America”
• 1st inhabitants of Harlem was
intellectuals, writers, and other
artists
• Harlem accepted and
encouraged African American art
and culture
Great Migration
• During the 1920s Harlem attracted many
blacks and they came with traditions and new
styles
• They usually came from the South and 6
million blacks migrated to cities in the
Northwest, Midwest, and West
• Many cities' population rapidly
grew and many industrial jobs
doubled
Great Migration cont.
• Many blacks were hoping to gain full
citizenship in northern cities
• They migrated in hope of independence
• When they came to the North it was not all
that it was portrayed to be. They were very
discriminated against
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/database/article_display.cfm?HHID=443
http://encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/545.html
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129827444
Harlem Renaissance
• The Harlem Hellfighters were the U.S. Army’s
369th Infantry Regiment. It was the best known
as the American Unit of World War 1
• Tuskegee Airmen is a name that represents
people who were in the “Tuskegee Experience”.
They trained African Americans to fly and
maintain aircrafts
• Buffalo Soldiers fought in the Civil War and they
helped settlers move west. They were brave and
courageous
http://www.buffalosoldiersamwest.org/history.htm
http://www.tuskegeeairmen.org/explore/history.aspx
http://www.blackpast.org/?q=aah/3
69th-infantry-regiment-harlemhellfighters
Post WW1 changes
• World War 1 affected all blacks in
America
• They demanded fair rights and sided
with the French because they treated
their people with dignity and equality
• The Great Migration transformed black
communities in the north and south and
many blacks joined the army
http://exhibitions.nypl.org/africanaage/essay-world-war-i.html
What are Harlem rent parties?
• Open house parties for citizens in Harlem
• Main type of music and entertainment came
from a jazz genre
• Played a major role in the development of
jazz
Who attended Harlem rent parties?
• Musicians such as Fats Waller started
playing at rent parties
• Individuals who enjoy low budget
entertainment
• Individuals supported each other and
represented a unified community
Fats Waller
Why/result of Harlem rent parties…
• To raise money for those who could not
afford a months rent
• Furthered the popularity of Jazz and R&B
music
• Rent parties were often the location of socalled “cutting contest”, which involves jazz
pianists taking turns at the piano,
attempting to out-do each other.
http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/presentationsandactivities/prese
ntations/timeline/progress/prohib/rent.html
Black economy during the Harlem
Renaissance
• Banks
• White owned banks would not lend to blacks
• White owned banks would not lend to blacks
• Black leaders suggested blacks open their
own
bankssuggested blacks open their own banks
• Black
leaders
• Harlem attracted many prosperous black
• Harlem
attracted many prosperous black professionals
professional
Black Economy During the Renaissance
Real Estate
Black businessmen purchased real estate from white owners
Blacks owned apartments and houses
Wealthy black neighborhoods called Sugar Hill / Striver’s Row
Black Economy During the Renaissance
Businesses
• Marcus Garvey: founded Black Star Shipping Line
• Madame Walker : cosmetics/hair products for black women
• Black Swan Phonograph Corporation: recorded black artists
Black Economy During the Renaissance
Websites
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http://africanamericanart.si.edu/glossary
http://www.austincc.edu/caddis/1920s
http://www.blackpast.org/?q=aah/101-african-american-firsts
http://www.broadwayhousing.org/housing/sugarhill/
http://www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/chap9/9intro.html
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/database/article_display.cfm?HHID=443
http://www.pbs.org/now/arts/harlem.html
http://www.ushistory.org/us/46e.asp
http://www2.si.umich.edu/chico/Harlem/text/exhibition.html
http://www2.si.umich.edu/chico/Harlem/text/cjwalker.html
http://www2.si.umich.edu/chico/Harlem/text/blackswan.html
The Harlem Renaissance:
Black Education & Higher Education
• Education:
• Great desire from African Americans for education
• During Renaissance, promise of equal educational
opportunities increased and enhanced a population
• Many factors influenced education during this period
of cultural movement
• Migration:
• Thousands of African Americans traveled north seeking
economic opportunities, escape oppressive social
conditions, and obtain education
• Many traveled to New York
• New York: By law, only northern state that prohibited
segregated schools
Militancy/awareness among African Americans:
Felt the freedoms promised following America's
participation in World War I had eluded them.
Felt had same right as others because they
fought for freedom in WWI
Not willing to “Yes sir” anymore
Despite schools in Harlem open to black and white students
on a non-segregated basis, most schools remained
primarily Black.
Because the education was free, schools became
over-crowded
Principals did not welcome to the black students due to
pressure and harassment from teachers
• Booker T. Washington- believed the usual subjects taught in
school were irrelevant to Negroes of that time
• Thought they should be taught more about industry and
economy
• Trade schools were established based on this philosophy
Influences on Black Education
17
• The Harlem YMCA-taught women cooking embroidery,
sewing, millinery and related domestic work preparing
them for a specific workforce
• Taught men about the work force and manual labor
• Came to be one of Harlem’s most important educational
recreational and cultural centers
Influences on Black Education
18
Harlem Renaissance and Communism
• During the Depression
• Uplift the black race and bring about equality
• Boost to the morale in Harlem.
http://www.tcnj.edu/~fisherc/black_and_red.html#Harlem
http://www2.pslweb.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&i
d=13615&news_iv_ctrl=1261
• Increase the movement against racism and
Black liberation
• End the oppression of the black race.
• Respond to Black ideology
Examples of communism influence on
Harlem Renaissance
• Cultural organizations
– Federal Negro Theatre
– Harlem Community Arts Center
– Federal Writers Project
• African Blood Brotherhood
• Langston Hughes
– Poem "A New Song"
The NAACP
• *It was founded February 12, 1909.
• *It was formed by a group of white liberals
• in response to the ongoing lynches and the
race riot in 1908.
The NAACP Continued
• The purpose is “to ensure the political,
educational, social, and economic equality of
the rights of all persons and to eliminate racial
hatred and discrimination”.
• It is a Civil Rights Organization that works “to
seek enactment and enforcement of federal,
state, and local laws securing civil rights”.
The National Urban League
New York- September 29, 1910
Ruth Standish Baldwin and Dr. George
Edmund Haynes
Eugene K. Jones, Lester Granger
The National Urban League Continued
Empowering Communities, Changing Lives
“To enable African Americans to secure
economic self-reliance, parity, power, and civil
rights”
Focus on goals for America in education,
employment, housing, and healthcare.
The National Urban League Continued
“Education and persuasion”
“Street Academy”, “New Thrust”
What is the Harlem Renaissance
Literature
• Creativity in literature from African-American
writers.
• Honored and paid tribute to the AfricanAmerican heritage/background.
• Helped to re-define the African-American way
of expression.
• Expressed marginality and alienation.
How It Started
• Began in Greenwich Village and Harlem.
• Charles Spurgeon Johnson encouraged
African-American writers to migrate to the New
York area.
• Young writers came from the Caribbean, rural
America, and Africa.
The People Involved
• Marcus Garvey: founder, Universal Negro
Improvement Association.
• W.E.B. DuBois: editor, “The Crisis” Magazine.
• James Weldon Johnson: editor, The Book of
African Negro Poetry.
Subject Matter
• The art styles normally consisted of geometrical shapes like
rectangles, squares, triangles, etc.
• This created sharp and compelling images
• The art normally depicted aspects of African-American culture, such
as the saxophone, new types of dance, and blues singers
• http://home.wlu.edu/~connerm/AfAmStudies/Contemporary%20Cu
lture%20Project/Voice%20Of%20African%20Americans/elements_move.htm
Inspiration for the Art
• Artists of the movement often biased their work
on art produced in Africa
• African-American history as well as social injustice
fueled the artists imagination during the period
• Music and religion of the South was another
source of inspiration for the artists
• http://cco.cambridge.org/extra
ct?id=ccol052185699x_CCOL05
2185699XA007
RejectedTraditions
• Other artists such as playwrights and actors rejected the
stereotype of the Blackface and Minstrel shows, to create
new and complex types of plays for Negros
• By breaking away from the image that they had been
branded with by whites, Negros were able to reinvent
themselves in the image that they wanted
• http://libguides.howard.edu/content.php?pid=273384&sid=2
266155
•
• The Jazz age brought a interest in
African American culture, especially
music and painting
• It brought social change and an end to
legal, institutional, and social racism
• It allowed jazz, blues, and ragtime as
original American art forms.
• Thousands of black and white people went
every night to see the same performers and
musicians
• Billie Holliday (singer in jazz club)
• Chick Webb (one of the best regarded band
leaders and drummers of new “swing” style.)
• Louis Armstrong (One of the most famous
musicians in the Harlem Renaissance.)
• White people tried to steal blacks ideas and
use them as their own.
http://www.ushistory.org/us/46e.asp
http://public.wsu.edu/~campbelld/engl494/harlemren.htm
The Speakeasies
• The Speakeasies began in the 1920’s during
the time of prohibition.
• For every bar or salon that closed due to the
18th amendment a dozen or so underground
alcohol institutions sprung up.
• Many people took this illegal risk during this
time period because they saw the many
monetary benefits for themselves.
The Cotton Club
• Opened in 1923 and was owned by New
York gangster Owney Madden
• Known for an outlet for alcohol
• Plantation style feel to the club.
Savory Club
• Savory was the considered the most beautiful
ballroom in the world.
• The Savoy was extremely large in size
• Many famous Harlem renaissance singers and
dancers came to the Savory.
The Rens
• Created on February 13, 1923 by Robert Douglas
• All black professional basketball team
• Knows as the “big five” &
the “Rens”
• Home court was a ballroom
• at 138th street and 7th Avenue
• Due to lack of popularity the team moved on to
away games rather than home games
Rens Continued
• From 1932-33 their season record was 120
wins and 8 losses
• Six of the losses were to the Celtics
• Ironic because the Rens had beaten the Celtics
a total of eight times
• During that season, the Rens had set a record
of 88 consecutive wins
Rens…
• 1939 - Rens win the first professional basketball
championship
• 1949 - last season for the Rens as well as the last
season for the NBL
• After merging the NBL ,designed for colored
athletes with the all white association, the
“Basketball Association of America” is created
• That merger started the beginning of the National
Basketball Association we now know as the “NBA”
Harlem Globetrotters
• An exhibition basketball team
• Originally called the Chicago Globetrotters
in 1926, then named Harlem Globetrotters in
1928.
Harlem Globetrotters
• In 1941, Reece “Goose” Tatum brought comedy
basketball moves that would change the team
greatly.
• After 20 years of playing, they had played 3000
games and appeared on the cover of LIFE
Magazine, which was a great accomplishment
due to racial segregation in America.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Renaissance
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlem_Globetrotters