-
Jim Crow Laws
The Jim Crow Laws were laws that enforced segregation in the south. They separated races in many different places including schools, public transportation, restaurants, and churches. They were seen as a way of life rather than just anti-black laws. They motivated African Americans in the south to move to the north in hope of unity rather than segregation. -
Founding of the NAACP
The NAACP, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, was the largest civil rights organization. This organization was formed by a group of both white and black activists in response to violence against African Americans. It was aimed at fighting against racial inequalities throughout the United States. To achieve what they wanted, they worked through the judicial system and, in the end, won several significant civil rights cases. -
Beginning of World War I
World War I was a main factor that prompted the Great Migration. When World War I began in Europe, foreign workers could no longer work in the North. Therefore, Northern companies recruited African Americans in the South. Northerners, though, were not accepting of the African Americans. Laborers complained they were taking over all of the jobs and were lowering wages. The races were segregated and the blacks lived in slum areas of urban places of New York, Harlem being the most populated. -
The Great Migration
The Great Migration was the foundation of the Harlem Renaissance. W.E.B. Du Bois led six million African Americans from of the South to the North. They hoped for supporting jobs, no segregation, and overall a better life. In addition, they hoped to escape from the crimes and groups against them in the South. Harlem became associated with the African Americans rather than the whites because they were outnumbered. Harlem was the center for cultural embracement, expression, and experimentation. -
Jazz Music
Jazz music became popular in the 1920s and was a cultural boom. Jazz performances were held by talented African Americans. Some of them include Duke Ellington, Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday, and Louis Armstrong.Performances were never the same because of improvisation. The syncopated rhythms and the improvised solos appealed to many Harlem residents and even white audiences. The jazz music unified the whites and blacks as it was a common interest between them. -
Shuffle Along
Shuffle Along was a musical that first opened in 1921 and featured an all black cast. It was the most significant achievement in black theater at its time. This musical brought jazz music to Broadway and it introduced white New Yorkers to black music, theater, and entertainment. -
The Cotton Club
Jazz performances were held at the Cotton Club by some of the most popular and talented black performers of that time. The Cotton Club was a world-famous venue that provided jazz and dancing past midnight. Entrepreneurs created clubs like this specifically because some whites wanted to experience black culture without having interaction with them. Of all the clubs that were created, the Cotton Club was the most successful. By most, it was seen as the black culture becoming more accepted. -
The Civic Club Dinner
The Civic Club Dinner was an event that was hosted at the Civic Club in Manhattan to honor African American writers. It was originally planned to be a small dinner to honor one writer, but it later emerged into a bigger event where a lot of African Americans were represented. The Civic Club Dinner played an important role in bringing about the literature aspect of the Harlem Renaissance. -
Civil Rights Movement
The Civil Rights Movement was the effort for blacks to gain equal rights. Although slavery was abolished, African Americans still dealt with a lot of racial segregation and discrimination. The biggest achievement of the civil rights movement was the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This was a law that ended segregation in public places and banned discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin -
Brown vs Board of Education
The Brown vs the board of education was a court case that ultimately ended up finding racial segregation of children in public schools to be unconstitutional. This case helped establish that “separate-but-equal” education and other services were not actually equal. The ruling of this case helped stimulate the civil rights movement.
