The Harlem Renaissance
How does the
artist use
symbolism to
describe the
Renaissance?
Yankees
Buy
Giants
Pennant
Stink
Here!!
Here!
Mets
Lose
Here!!
Harlem, a neighborhood in New York City, was the
center of the African American political, cultural,
and artistic movement in the 1920s and early 1930s.
Can you see any evidence from this map that
this is an African American community?
1920
1911
1930
Harlem in
the early
1930s
Based on these pictures, describe what
life was like in Harlem in the early 1930s.
Causes
What events and movements do you think may have helped lead
to the Renaissance?
Great Migration:
the movement of
hundreds of
thousands of
African
Americans from
rural areas in the
South to urban
areas in both he
North and South.
Every family has that
one member that they
don’t want to admit to!
Don’t let it be you!!!
What push factors led to the migration? What pull factors led to the migration?
Causes
Growing African American Middle Class: developed
as a result of improved educational and employment
opportunities for African Americans.
The Harlem section of New York became the center of this
new African American class.
Causes
Political Agenda For Civil Rights by African Americans:
leaders such as W.E.B. Du Bois, Marcus Garvey and the
NAACP helped to inspire racial pride in the middle and
working class.
Du Bois, author of The Souls of
Black Folks, was instrumental in
the foundation of the NAACP.
Marcus Garvey
pushed for the Back
to Africa movement
The NAACP
published The
Crisis, a journal
used to share the
literary works of
African
Americans.
Du Bois believed that artistic and literary
work could be used as a form of
propaganda to help combat racial
stereotypes and gain new respect for
the race.
What
message does
this song,
written by an
African
American,
send to the
general
public?
How do images like this hinder the efforts
of African Americans like Du Bois?
Du Bois also believed in the “talented tenth.” This was the
idea that a small percentage of the African American
population who were exceptionally skilled should be
designated and educated as artistic and cultural leaders. He
proposed absolute equality for the "talented tenth" and
technical training for the black masses.
In what ways
does Du Bois’
“talented tenth”
idea combine
Washington’s
ideas with his
own?
Dubois’ Influence on Literature
The Negro Speaks of Rivers
Langston Hughes
I've known rivers:
I've known rivers ancient as the world and
older than the
flow of human blood in human veins.
My soul has grown deep like the rivers.
I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were
young.
I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled
me to sleep.
I looked upon the Nile and raised the
pyramids above it.
I heard the singing of the Mississippi when
Abe Lincoln
went down to New Orleans, and I've
seen its muddy
bosom turn all golden in the sunset.
I've known rivers:
Ancient, dusky rivers.
My soul has grown deep like the rivers.
Incident
Countee Cullen
Once riding in old Baltimore,
Heart-filled, head-filled with glee,
I saw a Baltimorean
Keep looking straight at me.
Now I was eight and very small,
And he was no whit bigger,
And so I smiled, but he poked out
His tongue, and called me, "Nigger."
I saw the whole of Baltimore
From May until December;
Of all the things that happened there
That's all that I remember.
How can these poems (and others we will
examine) be seen as propaganda?
The 369th “Hell
Fighters” were
rewarded the Croix
de Guerre for
gallantry in battle
and returned to the
U.S. as heroes to
African Americans.
Although the French recognized the courage and skill of the
regiment, the U.S. government downplayed their role and
even tried to convince the French to do the same.
“…We must not eat with them…shake hands or seek to talk
or meet with them outside of the requirements of military
duty…We must not commend too highly the [black] troops…”
excerpts from a memorandum entitled “Secret Information
Concerning the Black American Troops.”
How do you think the American public will treat African American soldiers
upon their return?
Causes
Red Summer of 1919
In response
to the gains
by African
Americans,
many
whites
fought back
during the
summer of
1919.
There were 25 major
race riots and at least
83 African Americans
were lynched.
The Ku Klux Klan
held over 200
meeting to increase
enrollment.
What are the psychological effects of lynching and cross
burning on aspiring African Americans?
African American Poet, Claude McKay
memorialized the bloody summer of 1919 with
the poem, “If We Must Die,” which was
published in the magazine Liberator.
If We Must Die
If we must die--let it not be like hogs
Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot,
While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs,
Making their mock at our accursed lot.
If we must die--oh, let us nobly die,
So that our precious blood may not be shed
In vain; then even the monsters we defy
Shall be constrained to honor us though dead!
Oh, Kinsmen! We must meet the common foe;
Though far outnumbered, let us show us brave,
And for their thousand blows deal one deathblow!
What though before us lies the open grave?
Like men we'll face the murderous, cowardly pack,
Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!
What is the imagery
used in the poem?
What message is
the author sending
to African
Americans?
Do you agree or
disagree with the
author? Why?
Impact
The Harlem section of New York City was transformed from a
deteriorating area into a thriving middle class community.
Before
After
Modernism & the Harlem Renaissance
• Blacks view surge in art, music and literature as the
creation of a new cultural identity.
• Whites see it as another new, exotic, and trendy form
of entertainment.
As Modern Artists look to “make it
new” they turn to the “New Negro”
arts movement.
How does the modernist trend towards
“primitivism” impact this?
Jazz Shapes American Culture
How did the following artists impact American
popular music?
Can you identify their music and differentiate it
from Early Jazz?
Differences in Artistic Vision
Dubois & Locke
Hughes & Hurston
• “Thus all art is propaganda
•“We younger Negro artists
and ever must be despite the who create now intend to
wailing of the purists.”
express our individual darkskinned selves without fear or
• “The great social gain in this is
shame. If white people are
the releasing of our talented
pleased we are glad. If they
group from the arid fields of
are not, it doesn’t matter. We
controversy and debate to the
know we are beautiful. And
productive fields of creative
ugly too.”
expression.”
What do you believe was more important: fighting
racial prejudice and stereotyping, or true personal
expression? (Read: “The Negro Artist and the
Racial Mountain” by Langston Hughes for HW)