Harlem Renaissance

Two developments led to a mass movement of African Americans to Harlem, New York, during the 1920s, a period during which more than 100,000 African Americans relocated to this area of New York in what was known as the "Great Migration" (Robinson, p. 14). The first development that led to this migration was the growing dissatisfaction with many African Americans in the Southern states. The second development was the construction of New York's new subway system, connecting for the first time Harlem and the city's downtown area. A majority of African Americans in Harlem during this period were members of a growing black middle- and upper-middle class. As Lisa Clay Robinson (p. 14) argues, "Never before had there been such a concentrated community of African Americans, many of them well educated, with professional jobs, and ready to set an example of what black people were really like." Harlem represented a new home for African Americans, one that would become a showcase for their talent in music, dance, literature, theater, painting and other forms of art. The birth of new artistic expressions by African Americans blossomed into a full scale movement that is referred to as the period of the Harlem Renaissance. This analysis will explore the artists of the Harlem Renaissance and their impact on American arts and letters.

The influence of the artistic output known as the Harlem Renaissance is still witnessed in contemporary times. Bil

Related Essays

The Harlem Renaissance The Harlem Renaissance has become a well-known episode in American cultural history, as the time and place of the first great public flowering of black .... (1497 6 )

Rebirth in the Harlem Renaissance The social atmosphere of the primarily artistic movement known as the Harlem Renaissance exhibited a social atmosphere of rebirth and celebration of newfound .... (1721 7 )

Their Eyes Were Watching God The liberation of black consciousness and freedom of expression that occurred in Harlem during the 1920s and 1930s is known as the Harlem Renaissance. .... (1626 7 )

Langston Hughes Langston Hughes or to give him his full name, James Mercer Langston Hughes, was one of the shining lights of the Harlem Renaissance, itself one of the shining .... (1904 8 )

Black Womanist Ethics .... Hurston was a figure in the Harlem Renaissance, a contemporary of such figures as Claude McKay, Langston Hughes, and Countee Cullen. .... (2367 9 )

ne of his poems, Incident, Cullen (p. 1) describes an encounter during his childhood in which he was called a "nigger" and which has, over time, come to symbolize the difficulties that he, as a black man, faced in learning how to "sing" or to find his creative voice. The "incident," as recalled by Cullen represent an epiphany for the speaker, a defining moment of insight and experience which shapes and informs the individual's subsequent life. Cullen's work conveys the struggles of living in an oppressive and racist society. Though the "incident" as explicated in the introductory stanzas is of seminal importance in Cullen's life - and appears to have been his first personal, intimate encounter with openly expressed racism and bigotry - it has a lasting impact. He suggests th`t after this epiphany, his life has been a "struggle up a never-ending stair" (Cullen, p. 1). That same life has been filled with "petty cares" which have inhibited his ability to grasp the explanation for his situation. (Cullen, p. 1). He considers his condition similar to that of Tantalus; the "fickle fruit" that the mythic figure is doomed to reach for is the equivalent of the "singing" that Cullen (p. 1), as a poet, must do. The writings of James We

Category: History - H