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Harlem Renaissance

Harlem Renaissance. A Community Makes Their Voice Heard. What inspires the Harlem Renaissance?. Great Migration (African-Americans) Between 1910 and 1920 Leaving Sharecropping and Jim Crow Laws Moved North to join the industry-based economy (work in factories)

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Harlem Renaissance

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  1. Harlem Renaissance A Community Makes Their Voice Heard

  2. What inspires the Harlem Renaissance? • Great Migration (African-Americans) • Between 1910 and 1920 • Leaving Sharecropping and Jim Crow Laws • Moved North to join the industry-based economy (work in factories) • North didn’t necessarily mean better or safer

  3. What inspires the Harlem Renaissance? • Race Riots • Racial tensions high • 1908 Springfield Race Riot • Springfield Illinois • Transfer of 2 African-Americans out of prison, upset white sheriff, he goes around burning black businesses • 7 dead • Around 25 other major urban race riots in 1919 alone

  4. What inspires the Harlem Renaissance? • Organizations: • In response to Springfield Race Riots: • NAACP: National Association for the Advancement of Colored People • Founded in 1909 (Date listed on founding on the 100th birthday of Abraham Lincoln) • Still working today to ensure equal rights • On the other side of the coin: • UNIA: Universal Negro Improvement Association • Led by Marcus Garvey who believed in separate African American Society • Struggles to stick around after Garvey leaves

  5. Harlem Renaissance • Rehabilitation of “authentic blackness” • Reaction to racism (especially in Modernist literature) • Freud for example thought Africa was land of animals) • Can’t have NO opinion although many different opinions-need change

  6. Why “Harlem”? Why “Harlem”? • Harlem is a neighborhood of New York City, New York • Originally a Dutch settlement • All the influential African-Americans lived there • Highest percentage of blacks in 1950 • Jazz and Dance clubs including famous Cotton Club

  7. Why “Renaissance”? • Renaissance means rebirth • First “Renaissance” considered after the dark ages in Europe when people began rediscovering Latin and Greek scholars • This Renaissance was artistic: Music, Literature, Paintings etc.

  8. Jazz and Blues • Music was incredibly important to the development of the culture • Jazz: • Allowed for improvisation (making up a solo on the spot) • Commentary on racial discrimination through songs • One of the first truly American forms of music • Blues: • Form of Jazz • Largely in deep south • Uses repetition with a punch line • Expresses sadness(the blues)

  9. Langston Hughes • Home life • Born 1902 in Joplin, Missouri (the south) • Elected “School Poet” as a kid • Father left U.S. to escape racism, Hughes tried living with him for a while but it didn’t work • Harlem: • Moves in 1922 • Leaves for a while to do the expatriate life • Returns in 1929 • Poetry • Develops “Jazz Poetry” • Upset people with some of his poems • Focused on racial issues and poverty issues

  10. Zora Neale Hurston • We’ve taken notes on her (Regionalism) • Anthropologist (Wrote about the people’s cultures) • Novelist • Short Story writer

  11. Claude McKay • Home life: • Born 1889 in Jamaica • Studied British literature growing up • 1912 went to Booker T. Washington’s Tuskegee Institute • Didn’t like the military aspect of it • Preferred W.E.B. DuBois • Move to Harlem: • 1914 • Published some Jamaican poems and poems that followed British structure • Travels London to Russia looking for solutions to economic issues

  12. James Weldon Johnson • Home Life: • Born 1871 in Jacksonville Florida • Studied the classics (Latin and Greek) growing up and in college • Political Life: • Worked for Theodore Roosevelt as consul to Venezuela and Nicaragua • One of the first blacks to pass the Florida State Bar • Became treasurer of NAACP- most influential • Writings: • Wrote poetry and stories from his literature studies • Wrote words for the “Negro National Anthem”: “Lift Every Voice and Sing” • Wrote influential “Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man” that addressed the issues of “Passing”

  13. The Great Depression • Economy hit the toilet. • Communism is intriguing • Later in history communism becomes more evil. • At this point, many turned to Communism and Socialism for the answers to the questions of poverty • Harlem speaks out • Many of these voices spoke out against the poverty- especially amongst African Americans • White people couldn’t understand why they weren’t just focusing on race.

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