What is the
Harlem Renaissance?
What is a Renaissance?
• rebirth or revival
• A period or movement of vigorous artistic
or intellectual activity
Harlem Renaissance
• The cultural movement of African
Americans during the 1920’s
• Brought about an awareness of
African American culture and
customs.
• Involved art, literature, and music.
• Impacted large cities throughout
the country.
• Many white American publishers
endorsed the movement giving it
legitimacy.
Harlem
• Located in New York City
• Between 125th Street and 145th Street.
• Originally white but as African Americans
moved in the whites moved out.
• Center of African American culture and
business during the 1920’s.
Duke Ellington
• Musical composer and pianist
• Orchestra leader
• Early great hits:
Black and Tan Fantasy
Black Beauty
Creole Love Call
It Don’t Mean a Thing
• Played at the Cotton Club
- attend by white audiences
- listen to nation wide on the radio
Louis Armstrong
•
•
•
•
Jazz musician (trumpet player)
Renown bandleader and singer
Later life a movie star
Hits from the 1920’s included:
St. Louis Blues
Ain’t Misbehavin’
I Ain’t Got Nobody
Dream a Little Dream For Me
Everybody Loves My Baby
Other notable entertainers
• Bessie Smith
- Empress of the Blues
– Blues Singer
• Jelly Roll Morton
- jazz pianist
Cotton Club
• Famous Harlem nightclub
• Featured many of the great
African American and white
entertainers
• Broadcast their shows
nationwide on the radio
• Audiences were predominately
white Americans
The Apollo Theater
• A showcase Harlem
Theater
• Opened to white
Americans only until the
1930’s
• African American
entertainers
Marcus Garvey
• Dynamic public speaker
• Founded Universal Negro Improvement Association
(UNIA)
• Urged African Americans to be proud of their race and
move back to Africa.
W.E.B. Dubois
• Founder of the National Association for the Advancement of
Colored People (NAACP).
• Promoted higher education for African Americans.
• Published The Crisis, an outlet for African American thoughts
and ideas.
The Crisis
• The official magazine of the NAACP
• Originally titled The Crisis: A Record of
the Darker Race.
• Goal: Give facts and arguments
showing the danger of racial
prejudice specifically as it applies to
African Americans.
• Noted writers: Langston Hughes and
Countee Cullen
William H Johnson
• Painter
• Painted scenes of African American daily lives
• Impacted American society (awareness)
Langston Hughes
• Born in Missouri (1902)
• Took the African American
tradition of oral story telling
and transformed it into
written form
• Depicted racial pride
I, Too
I, too, sing America.
I am the darker brother.
They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes,
But I laugh,
And eat well, and grow strong.
Tomorrow,
I’ll be at the table
When company comes.
Nobody’ll dare
Say to me,
“Eat in the kitchen,”
The.
Besides, They’ll see how beautiful I am
And be ashamed –
I, too, am American
Langston Hughes