The Harlem Renaissance:
The “New Negro Movement”
in American Life
Important Features
Harlem Renaissance: period from the end
of World War I and through the middle of
the 1930s Depression, during which a
group of talented African-American
writers produced a sizable body of
literature.
The notion of "twoness, “ a divided
awareness of one's identity, was
introduced by W.E.B. Du Bois, one of the
founders of the National Association for
the Advancement of Colored People
(NAACP) and the author of influential
book The Souls of Black Folks (1903)
Common themes: alienation, marginality,
the use of folk material, the use of the
blues tradition, the problems of writing
for an elite (white) audience.
HR was more than just a literary
movement: it included racial
consciousness, "the back to Africa"
movement led by Marcus Garvey, racial
integration, the explosion of music
particularly jazz, spirituals and blues,
painting, etc.
Significance of Harlem
Renaissance
Harlem became synonymous with new
vitality, Black urbanity, and Black
militancy.
It became a racial focal point for Blacks
the world over; it remained for a time a
race capital.
The renaissance was associated with the
New Negro Movement, so called because
of the anthology THE NEW NEGRO (1925)
edited by Alain Locke, whose
introductory essay "The New Negro" is
the closest to a manifesto or statement
of ideals that the Harlem Renaissance
has.
Writes of the Negro who is no longer
apologetic for blackness but who takes a
new pride in a racial identity and
heritage, of the "renewed self-respect
and self-dependence" felt in the
contemporary black community, which is
"about to enter a new phase."
• One characteristic of the Harlem Renaissance was
a move toward so-called "high art" in black
writing, rather than the use of folk idioms, comic
writing, and vernacular. The shift mirrors the
change from rural to urban life.
• The Harlem writers also engaged in intense
debate regarding the place of the African
American in American life, and on the role and
identity of the African-American artist.
For example, the artistic differences
between Langston Hughes and the
poet Countee Cullen:
Cullen believed that an AfricanAmerican poet should be free to write
in mainstream established traditions,
and need not radicalize poetry. "I
want to be a poet, not a Negro poet,"
he said, and wrote in forms such as
the sonnet and became a translator of
Euripides.
Hughes, on the other hand, saw this
attitude as a betrayal of racial identity,
an aping of white European-ness, and
sought in his work to accept and
explore his blackness using forms and
idioms that he associated with it.
An Explosion of Culture in Harlem
• 1917 saw the premiere of Three Plays for a Negro
Theatre. These plays, written by white playwright
Ridgely Torrence, featured black actors' conveying
complex human emotions and yearnings.
– They rejected the stereotypes of the blackface and
minstrel show traditions.
• Seen as "the most important single event in the
entire history of the Negro in the American
Theatre."
Another landmark came in 1919, when
Claude McKay published his militant
sonnet "If We Must Die”.
Although the poem never alluded to
race, to black readers it sounded a
note of defiance in the face of racism,
race riots and lynching's taking place.
“If we must die, O let us nobly die/ […]
Like men we’ll face the murderous,
cowardly pack, / pressed to the wall,
dying, but fighting back!”
The Harlem Renaissance and the
1920s embodied jazz music.
Jazz gained national and worldwide
recognition. However, many of the
middle and upper-class negro families
were unsure or even hostile towards
jazz music because they believed that
“Negros”—at least affluent “Negros”—
should “assimilate into the white
business culture.”
Some of the more popular nightclubs
included the Savoy Ballroom, the
Apollo Theatre, and The Cotton Club.
The traditional jazz band was
composed primarily of brass
instruments and was considered a
symbol of the south, but the piano was
considered an instrument of the
wealthy.
With this instrumental modification to
the existing genre, the wealthy black
people now had more access to jazz
music.
Innovation was important
characteristics of performers like Duke
Ellington, Jelly Roll Morton, and Billie
Holiday, three musicians who laid the
foundation for future musicians.
During this time period, the musical
style and culture of black people was
becoming more and more attractive to
whites.
White novelists, dramatists and
composers started to exploit the
musical tendencies and themes of
African-American in their works.
Composers used poems written by
black poets in their songs, and would
implement the rhythms, harmonies
and melodies of African-American
music—such as blues, spirituals, and
jazz—into their concert pieces.
Impact of the Harlem
Renaissance
1. Brought the Black experience clearly
within the body of American cultural
identity.
2. Legacy of the Harlem Renaissance
redefines how America viewed the
African-American population.
3. This new identity led to a greater
social consciousness, and AfricanAmericans became players on the
world stage, expanding intellectual
and social contacts internationally.
4. The progress became a point of
reference from which the AfricanAmerican community gained a spirit of
self-determination.
5. Provided a growing sense of both
Black urbanity and Black Militancy.
6. Foundation for the community to
build upon for Civil Rights struggles in
the 1950s and 1960s.
7. Foundation for the community to
build upon for Civil Rights struggles in
the 1950s and 1960s.
December 1, 1955
Criticism of the movement
– The Harlem intellectuals, while proclaiming a
new race consciousness, became mimics of
Whites, wearing clothes and using manners of
sophisticated Whites.
– Harlem Renaissance could not overcome the
overwhelming White presence in commerce
which defined art and culture. What was needed
was a rejection of White values.
– War between artists of various genres over the
direction of the black movement.
• Some thought Renaissance relied too heavily on white
publishing houses and white-owned magazines.
• African American musicians and other performers also
played to mixed audiences. Harlem's cabarets and
clubs attracted both Harlem residents and white New
Yorkers seeking out Harlem nightlife.
• Harlem's famous Cotton Club carried this to an
extreme by providing black entertainment for
exclusively white audiences.
• Ultimately, the more successful black musicians and
entertainers who appealed to a mainstream audience
moved their performances downtown.
W.E.B Du Bois
(1868 – 1963)
A central thinker in civil rights struggle.
His entire career is understood as an
unremitting struggle for civil and
political rights.
Educated at Fisk , Harvard, and
University of Berlin. Despite having
thesis published by Harvard Historical
Studies, he was not able to secure
appointment at major university.
Taught at Penn and Atlanta University.
There he began an examination of “socalled Negro problem.”
On way to appeal for innocence of a
man accused of murder and rape,
learned a lynch mob had
dismembered and burned at the stake
the man he was defending. Later, it
was learned that they had put on
display man’s knuckles in grocery
store.
Grows increasingly more radical…
Later became founder of NAACP.
The Souls of Black Folk
Comes to national attention with
publication of The Souls of Black Folk,
which is considered to the
“preeminent text of African American
cultural consciousness.”
“The problem of the 20th century is the
problem of the color-line”
Notion of “twoness” or ‘double
consciousness” is born.
Begins very open debate with Booker
T. Washington, founder of Tuskegee
institute.
Claude McKay
(1889 -1948)
Background:
Jamaican by birth, U.S. citizen in 1940.
Left Harlem as Renaissance was
getting started.
Criticized Du Bois often…
Nevertheless, Harlem Shadows (1922),
a book of poems, is generally
considered the book initiated the
Renaissance.
Widely regarded as one of the most
important black writers of the 1920s.
His Work, In General …
1919, “If We Must Die,” appears in
left-wing journal The Liberator.
His poetry, much of it written in strict
sonnet form, married race matters,
radical politics, and poetic techniques
into compelling statements that were
also good poetry according to
traditional standards.
McKay’s Radical Politics
• Radical politics rose from his belief that racism
was inseparable from Capitalism, which he
saw as a structure designed to perpetuate
economic inequality. Attacking Capitalism was
attacking racial injustice.
• 1923 – went to Moscow (welcomed as a
celebrity amongst Soviets). Connections to
communist regime made him a target of FBI.
Langston Hughes
(1902 – 1967)
Considered the most popular and
versatile of Harlem Renaissance
writers.
In contrast to Countee Cullen or Jean
Toomer (who both chose to work with
patterns of written literary forms),
Hughes aspired to capture the
dominant oral and improvisatory
traditions of black culture in written
form.
In 1926 essay he wrote, “The Negro
artist and the Racial Mountain”
appeared.
Insisted on courageous artists to rise
up. Avoid mere imitation of white
counterparts.
Radical Politics of L. Hughes
• Drawn to communist party.
• Visited Soviet Union in 1932 and produced radical
writing.
• In 1953 was called before the House of UnAmerican Activities Committee (HUAC) in
connection with “subversive” activities and in
connection with 1930s radicalism.
• FBI listed him as a security risk until 1959 – could
not leave country as he would not have been
allowed back in.
As an artist
Hughes chose to focuses work on
modern, urban black life
Modeled stanzas on improvisatory jazz
music and adapted everyday black
speech to poetry.
Acknowledged white writers who
allowed for his kind of “free” verse –
Whitman’s singing of America, etc.
Was keenly aware that the modernist
“vogue in all things Negro” among
white Americans was potentially
exploitative and voyeuristic (racial
tourists)
Demanded that not only AfricanAmerican artists but regular folk, too,
become owners of the culture they
gave to U.S. and as fully enfranchised
American citizens.