-
The Start
The Harlem Renaissance was a time of cultural, social, and artistic explosion that took place in Harlem between the end of World War I and the middle of the 1930s. Huge numbers of African Americans migrated to the industrial North. In cities such as Harlem was a cultural center, drawing black writers, artists, musicians, photographers, poets, and scholars. -
Artists
Artists whose works achieved recognition were Langston Hughes and Claude McKay, Countee Cullen and Arna Bontemps, Zora Neale Hurston and Jean Toomer, Walter White and James Weldon Johnson. Many of these artist had to escape the system so they couldfreely express their talents. -
Writers
Claude McKay was one of the most prominent figures in the Harlem Renaissance. McKay is considered one of the main stimulators of the Negritude Movement . Over his life he often spoke out against and wrote about the institutionalized racism of governments. -
Writers
Cab Calloway Calloway was a ambassador for his race, leading one of the most popular African American big bands during the Harlem Renaissance. -
Writers
W.E.B Du Bois
Black historian, sociologist, and Harvard scholar, W. E. B. Du Bois was at the forefront of the civil rights movement at this time. In 1905 Du Bois, in collaboration with a group of prominent African-American political activists and white civil rights workers, met in New York to discuss the challenges facing the black community. -
Writers
Zora Neale Hurston
Zora Neale Hurston was a American folklorist and writer in the Harlem Renaissance. At a youung age, Hurston joined a traveling theatrical company, ending up in New York City during the Harlem Renaissance. Hurston influenced such later black authors as Ralph Ellison and Toni Morrison. -
Writers
Langston Hughes
Langston Hughes was one of the most important writers and thinkers of the Harlem Renaissance, which creative genius was influenced by his life in New York City's Harlem. In the Harlem Renaissance, there was a strong sense of racial pride through Hughes' poetry, novels, plays etc.. -
Religion
The Harlem Renaissance encouraged thoughtful thinking patterns related to religious and philosophical ideals. During this time period Christianity became popular. -
Religion
In Harlem migrants and native Harlemites find an exciting spiritual alternative to the traditional denominations. African American will greatly impact music, writings, and art expressions. Thomas A. Dorsey began to compose sacred tunes that combined the deep emotional patterns of blues, hymns, and polyrhythms. This style became known as traditional Gospel Music. -
Education
Education during the Harlem Renaissance was influenced by numerous factors, among them the migration of thousands of African Americans from the south and the West Indies. Migrants from the south were seeking better economic opportunities, escape from oppressive social conditions that threatened life and limb, and opportunities that were far superior to the limited schooling available in the south. -
Education
Despite schools in Harlem being open to black and white students on a non-segregation basis, a number of schools maintained an all black population, primarily because of the increase of black residents in Harlem. Booker T. Washington’s notions of vocational education for African Americans had supporters in Harlem as it did in the south. Trade Schools were established and newly arrived African Americans were encouraged to attend them. -
Education
In spite of its limited vocational vision for African Americans, the Harlem YMCA came to be one of Harlem’s most important educational recreational and cultural centers. It was a meeting place for literary and political groups and its proximity to the New York Public Library. It was a place of social gatherings. -
Education
The public library system took on major significance in the spread of this literary and artistic movement in New York. Journals, books, essays, critiques, movies, art, music became a powerful teaching tool during the Harlem Renaissance. -
The end
The depression hit the African-American population hard. The increased economic tension of the Depression caused black leaders to shift their focus from arts and culture to the financial and social issues of the time. In addition, the strained relationship between the black community and the white shop-owners in Harlem finally tore the two groups apart in 1935.
