Harlem Renaissance

1. Harlem Renaissance 1919 - 1929

2. Harlem • Black intellectual and artistic life flourished in many northern US cities • It reached its peak, however, in New York City, particularly in the part of the city north of Central Park called Harlem, which came to be know as “the Negro capital of the world.” • In the 1920’s, Harlem quickly became “the place to be,” and the center of Black cultural and political activity.

3. Claim to Fame • The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the National Urban League, and the Universal Negro Improvement Association were all headquartered in Harlem, as were the magazines the Crisis, Opportunity, The Messenger, and Negro World. • Poets and fiction writers such as Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Countee Cullen, Claude McCay, NellaLarse, Georgia Douglass Johnson, and Jessie Fauset were published in these magazines.

4. Writers • Many of the writers and artists associated with the Harlem Renaissance became an elite class of Black Americans. • Because of the racist views of most White Americans, some African-American leaders argued that Black artists had a responsibility as “representatives of the race.” Many did not like this. • 16 writers published more than 50 volumes of poetry and fiction

5. Jazz in Harlem • Harlem was also the home of a new and very popular musical sound of the 1920's, jazz • The Cotton Club, Harlem’s best known and gaudiest nightclub, was for White patrons only.