L5&6: The Harlem Renaissance Equality and Hierarchy: The African American Experience

1. L5&6: The Harlem Renaissance Equality and Hierarchy: The African American Experience • Agenda • Objective: • To understand what the Harlem Renaissance was. • To understand the significance of the Harlem Renaissance for the black experience. • Schedule: • Group Stations Activity • Whole Class Discussion Homework: Consult Unit Schedule. Remember: Literature Review Due ...(Tan = Wed; Red & Blue = Thurs);

2. The Harlem Renaissance • 1920s and 1930s • The Harlem Renaissance was a flowering of African American social and cultural thought which was expressed through: • Paintings • Music • Dance • Theater • Literature

4. Why the Harlem Renaissance • During the Great Migration the majority of African Americans who moved north ended up in New York City. • Of the almost 750,000 African Americans who moved North, nearly 175,000 moved to Harlem. • The neighborhood of Harlem became a ethnic enclave of African Americans. • Harlem is a section of Manhattan, which covers three square miles • Harlem became the largest concentration of black people in the world.

5. Where is Harlem? The island of Manhattan Neighborhoods New York City is on Manhattan island

7. Why Did the Harlem Renaissance Emerge When and Where it Did? • Large concentration of African Americans in Harlem • Emergence of a black middle class coming out of the Great Migration • Increased contact between African Americans and white Americans in the workplace and on city streets forced a new awareness of the disparity between the promise of the American dream and reality. • Blacks WWI experience and disillusionment with race relations in the United States • African American soldiers who served in World War I were angered by the prejudice they often encountered back at home, compared to the acceptance they had found in Europe. • Race riots and civil uprisings during the summer of 1919 over post-war economic tensions between blacks and whites • Rise of NAACP and Black Nationalism

8. The Harlem Renaissance and Whites • The Harlem Renaissance appealed to a mixed audience—the African American middle class and white consumers of the arts. • Urbane whites suddenly took up New York’s African-American community, bestowing their patronage on young artists, opening up publishing opportunities, and pumping cash into Harlem’s “exotic” nightlife in a complex relationship that scholars continue to probe.

9. Understanding the Harlem Renaissance • In order to more fully explore the characteristics, themes, and significance of the Harlem Renaissance we will… • Day One: Artistic Analysis • Divide up into 4 groups • Look at 4 stations each containing an artistic work by an artist of the Harlem Renaissance era. • As you interact with each piece.: • Identify what the piece is saying about: • The Black experience in America • Black identity / Racial Consciousness • White people / White America • How the African American condition should be improved • Other? • Day Two: Whole Class Discussion • We will discuss the characteristics, themes, and significance of the Harlem Renaissance using your artistic analysis as our evidence!

10. “If You Believe the Negro Has a Soul”Marcus GarveySpeech1921 • http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5124/

11. “I, Too, Sing America”Langston HughesPoem1945 • https://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15615

12. “Take the A Train”Duke EllingtonJazz Composition1939 • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cb2w2m1JmCY

13. Jacob Lawrence“Brownstones”Painting1954

14. Discussion!