So Much History

Originally called the New Negro Movement, the Harlem Renaissance was a literary and intellectual flowering that fostered a new Black cultural identity that began in Harlem, New York after World War I. It ended around 1939. The movement raised significant issues affecting the lives of Black Americans through various forms of literature, art, music, drama, painting, sculpture, movies, and protests. Voices of protest and ideological promotion of civil rights for African Americans inspired and created institutions and leaders who served as mentors to aspiring writers.

The Harlem Renaissance arose from a generation that had lived through the gains and losses of Reconstruction after the Civil War. Sometimes their parents or grandparents had been slaves. Many in the Harlem Renaissance were part of the Great Migration out of the South into the Black neighborhoods of the North and Midwest. African Americans sought a better standard of living and relief from the institutionalized racism in the South. Others were people of African descent from racially stratified communities in the Caribbean who came to the United States hoping for a better life.

Harlem, New York became the capitol of cultural activity for African-Americans. This period in American history was extremely uplifting to African-Americans as a people. Personalities and individuals connected their expressions in writings, music, and visual artworks as they related to the political, social, and economic conditions of being Black in America. Black-owned magazines and newspapers flourished, freeing African Americans from the constricting influences of mainstream White society.

Charles S. Johnson's "Opportunity" magazine became the leading voice of Black culture, along with W.E.B. Du Bois's journal, "The Crisis", with Jessie Redmon Fauset as its literary editor. It launched the literary careers of such writers as Langston Hughes, and Countee Cullen. The White literary establishment soon became fascinated with the writers of the Harlem Renaissance and began publishing them in larger numbers. But for the writers themselves, acceptance by the White world was less important, as Langston Hughes put it, than the "expression of our individual dark-skinned selves."

Sound is often referred to as the “universal language,” that which can touch the human soul. Music is able to transcend race and political preference while invoking the deepest of emotions sometimes without saying a word. Harlem was the center of a musical evolution which uncovered amazing talent and created a unique sound that has yet to be paralleled. Jazz was the newest African American sound and it attracted White folks to go to the Cotton Club nightclub. It was here that artists like Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, and Chick Webb played to overwhelming audiences.

Jazz, a result of the Harlem Renaissance, originated from the musical minds of Black Americans. These include traits that survived from West African music Black folk music forms developed in the New World. In Harlem, jazz music was extremely popular and influential. One of the most popular ideas was the way to play the piano called "stride piano". From this style of playing the piano rose a jazz powerhouse named "Fats" Waller. He himself started yet another jazz technique called the " boogie-woogie". Though this style did not become extremely popular until the latter part of the 1940's, it would influence the jazz pianists of the younger generations like Teddy Wilson and Art Tatum.

Aside from being the center for artistic and religious movements we must not forget that Harlem was also a hotbed for political movements and heated debates. Black historian, sociologist, and Harvard scholar, W.E.B. Du Bois was at the forefront of the civil rights movement at this time. In 1905 Du Bois, in collaboration with a group of prominent African-American political activists and White civil rights workers, met in New York to discuss the challenges facing the Black community. In 1909, the group founded the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

The poetry during the Harlem Renaissance focused on the Black American experience as well as on other related, relevant themes including racism, slavery, discrimination, and more. Harlem Renaissance poets such as Langston Hughes, Claude McKay, and Georgia Douglas Johnson explored the beauty and pain of Black life and sought to define themselves and their community outside of White stereotypes. Langston Hughes, Sterling Brown, and James Weldon Johnson wrote in Black vernacular, using the rhythms of the blues and spirituals in their verse.

Johnson’s 1927 poetry collection, "God’s Trombone: Seven Negro Folk Sermons", one of the more popular works of the era, used the speech patterns of an old Black preacher to capture the heart of the Black idiom. Langston Hughes became known as the Poet Laureate of Harlem who wrote poems like "The Negro Speaks of Rivers", "The Weary Blues", and "I too". Most of his works speak about discrimination against Black Americans and the idea of standing up and taking pride in their heritage. The poets used their words to inspire and motivate others.