The Beginning of the Harlem Renaissance

The Harlem Renaissance was a period from 1919 to 1930 of African American awaking the realm of art, literature, and music that captivated the American public as well as established the “Negro” as a force to be reckoned. The movement was both a national and global event. Although African Americans established themselves in the arts as equals with many whites, they were not immune to the daily reminder that they were still considered second class citizens. Artists such as Josephine Baker found it necessary to explore her career in Europe since her skin color restricted her from performing at many nightclubs in Harlem.

However, among African Americans the Harlem Renaissance established the powerful image of the African American people as positive, capable, and determined. No longer were they slaves or just sharecroppers. Now African Americans had a true voice and presence in the artistic world. From slavery ships to jazz greats such as Ella Fitzgerald and literary greats as Langston Hughes, the African American people arrived into the artistic world with a bang. Take a moment to relish and reflect on the experience known as the Harlem Renaissance.

The Harlem Renaissance was the first period in the history of the United States in which a group of African American poets, authors, and essayists seized the opportunity to express themselves and were embraced by others both nationally and globally. Two basic conditions which fostered this unique situation were African American’s contact with other blacks from different parts of the world which gave him a renewed sense of self-respect, and mass migration of African Americans from the South to major northern industrial areas—one of them being Harlem, New York.

The Harlem Renaissance began in 1918 with the publication of Claude McKay’s “Harlem Dancer” and ended in 1929. During this period, there was a wave of literary works by and about African Americans. Despite this productivity, the Harlem Renaissance was not a renaissance in the literal sense of the word. The New Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines a “renaissance” as a rebirth or revival of literary ideas. The Harlem Renaissance can be more accurately described as a period of vigorous artistic creativity on the part of the African American intellectual.

One of the main goals of black writers and The Harlem Renaissance succeeded in proving the “Negro” as an individual who was able to make great achievements if given the opportunity. However, continued injustices forced black intellectuals into the harsh realization that racism was deeply rooted in American society.

Reformers

William Edward Burghardt Du Bois

Born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts 1868 he was an academic, scholar, activist and journalist. His parents were originally from Haiti. After the death of his father, young DuBois had to struggle to study but his teachers were amazed at the academic capability of DuBois. He was the first African American to earn a Ph.D from Harvard University. He also attended University of Berlin and met many social scientists of that time and he traveled frequently to Europe. Some of his works that made him famous are The Philadelphia Negro, The souls of Black Folk, Black Reconstruction, Black Folk, Then an Now and The Negro. DuBois books talk extensively about the lives of black people not only in the US but also the around the African Continent. He was also the most intellectual political African American Leader in the first half of the twentieth century. He was concerned about the segregation and the political disenfranchisement and he was known as “The Father of Pan-Africanism.” In his later life DuBois was thought to be communist because he talked about the positive things of Stalin. DuBois died in Ghana at the age of 95 in August 27, 1963 one day before Martin Luther King gave his “I Have a Dream speech.” http://www.duboislc.org/html/DuBoisBio.html

James Weldon Johnson (June 17, 1871 – June 26, 1938)

He was an author, politician, diplomat, critic, journalist, poet, anthologist, educator, lawyer, songwriter, early civil right activist, and a prominent figure in the Harlem Renaissance. He was born in Jacksonville, Florida. He attended the Atlanta University and got his B.A. from there. It was in Georgia where he experienced the life of poor African-Americans. After graduating from University he became the principle of Jacksonville school where his mother had taught too. He added ninth and tenth grade in the school to improve the education. He was a very popular poet and a songwriter. Some of his famous works are- God’s Trombones: Seven Negro Sermons in Verse which marked him as a significant creative endeavor, The Book of American Negro Poetry (1922), The Book of American Negro Spirituals (1925), and The Second Book of Negro Spirituals (1926). He also became the General Secretary of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in 1920. He was very active in the advancement of the African Americans in all social and academic fields. Johnson died on 26 June 1938, in Wiscasset Maine, when his car was struck b a train. http://www.sc.edu/library/spcoll/amlit/johnson/johnson1.html

Alain LeRoy Locke (September 13, 1885 – June 9, 1954)

Born in Pennsylvania he was an American writer, philosopher, educator and patron of arts. He graduated from the Central High School in Philadelphia and went to Harvard University. From Harvard he graduated with a degree in English and Philosophy. Locke started his teaching career from Howard University and he remained as an educator for 41 years. Locke was a key figure of the New Negro Movement and the Harlem Renaissance. He was involved in the promotion of Black art and culture and had three main philosophical issues: values and valuation, cultural pluralism, and race relations. He was one of the founders of the Gamma Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa at Howard University. Locke promoted African American artists, writers, and musicians, encouraging them to look to Africa as an inspiration for their works. Some of his publications were The New Negro, The Negro in Art and When People Meet: A Study in Race and Cultural Contacts. Locke died in New York at the age of 68.
http://www.founders.howard.edu/Locke.htm

Asa Philip Randolph

Randolph was born in April 15, 1889 in Crescent City, Florida, son of a minster father and skilled seamstress mother. From his mother he learned the importance of education and from his father he learned that the color was less important than one’s conduct and character. Randolph was influenced by DuBois “The Souls of Black “which led him in thinking that social equality was important that anything else. Randolph with the some labor organization experience organized The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters which was the first serious effort of unionizing the Pullman Company. He also emerged as one of the influential spoke person for the African-American civil rights. Randolph founded a committee against Jim Crow in military service and training. He met with President Truman regarding the issue of segregation in the military. Finally in July 26, 1948, President Truman issued an order to ban Jim Crow in the army. Randolph was also a key person in the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on August 28, 1963, this March is regarded as the key factor for the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Randolph died in 1979 and many great people along with President Jimmy Carter were present at his funeral. http://www.phila.k12.pa.us/schools/randolph/A_P_Randolph.html