The Harlem Renaissance

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The Harlem Renaissance

• Section 214
• pp. 658-663

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Preview Questions

• How did African Americans approach civil rights
  in the 1920s?
• What was the Harlem Renaissance?

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I. African American Voices

• Great Migration
• Economic discrimination
• Racial tension and riots

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I. African American Voices

• NAACP
• Work to end racial violence
• Fight for anti-lynching laws

James Weldon Johnson Anti-Lynching Crusader
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I. African American Voices

• Marcus Garvey
• Separate society
• Founded UNIA
• Urged return to Africa

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II. The Harlem Renaissance

• What Was It?
• Literary movement
• Artistic movement
• Celebrated black culture
• Led by middle-class African-Americans

Harlem was the largest black urban community in
the 1920s
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II. The Harlem Renaissance

• Literature
• Pride and perils
• Celebrated heritage
• Hughes Lives of working class
• Hurston Lives of Southern poor

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I, Too, Sing America by Langston Hughes
Tomorrow, I'll be at the table When company
comes. Nobody'll dare Say to me, "Eat in the
kitchen," Then. Besides, They'll see how
beautiful I am And be ashamed-- I, too, am
America.
I, too, sing America. I am the darker
brother. They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes, But I laugh, And eat well,
And grow strong.
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II. The Harlem Renaissance

• Jazz
• Blended rag blues
• Louis Armstrong
• Duke Ellington
• Bessie Smith