The Factors Leading to the Harlem Renaissance

Langston Hughes was a poet during the Harlem Renaissance.

During the beginning of the 20th century, many African Americans focused their efforts on racial equality and civil rights. The Harlem Renaissance began in Harlem, New York around 1914 and continued into 1935. The movement responded to racial inequality with an explosion of new work in such areas as art, literature, music, protest and academics.

History

• After the Civil War, newly liberated African Americans looked for places to explore their new freedom. Towards the end of the 19th century, many left the South to escape oppression. They moved to northern cities and many settled in Harlem, New York. African Americans began to form strong communities, and their art, culture, music and literature began to thrive. Social and political organizations were also formed to improve the circumstances of African Americans.

  Politics

  • Plessy versus Ferguson, a United States Supreme Court case, declared racial segregation acceptable in 1896. As a result, the growing African American middle class wanted a new political agenda that advocated racial equality. In 1909, an interracial group consisting of W.E.B. Du Bois, an American sociologist and prominent African-American protest leader, along with Mary White Ovington, a white American civil rights activist, established the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, commonly referred to as the NAACP. This group helped bolster a sense of empowerment for African Americans, and helped foster the Harlem Renaissance. Through NAACP's magazine, Du Bois encouraged talented African American readers to move to Harlem.

    Significance

    • The northern cities had an abundance of industrial jobs. These jobs paid well and led many African Americans away from the racism that underlined the southern economy. As more African Americans populated the northern cities, predominately black neighborhoods developed an identity of their own. The Harlem Renaissance helped create the beginning of a new self-conscious nation through politics, art and culture. African American artists and writers produced large amounts of literature, paintings and sculptures, and many participated in music, drama and dance.

    References
  • John Carrol University: Harlem Renaissance
  • Southern University and A&M College - John B. Cade Library: Harlem Renaissance
  • Biography.com: The Harlem Renaissance
  • Intimate Circles: American Women in the Arts
  
  

  Resources

  • Welcome to Harlem: Harlem Renaissance Authors
  • ReadWriteThink: Harlem Renaissance Websites
  • Library of Congress: The Harlem Renaissance and the Flowering of Creativity
  • PBS: The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow - The Harlem Renaissance