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Anari Oliver
April 5, 2018
The Harlem Renaissance
The Harlem Renaissance was the making of the Harlem
community in New York City as a black cultural birthplace during the 1920s. It
is also coined as an artistic movement that spanned throughout the northern
Manhattan borough. This particular era consisted of an intellectual, musical,
and artistic explosion that has had an everlasting influence on today’s society.
At that time, it was most commonly known as the “New Negro Movement”, in which
it was named after Alain Locke’s 1925 anthology. The Harlem Renaissance is
considered to be a golden period for African American culture.
Originally, Harlem was intended to be a rich white
neighborhood in the 1880s, but rapid infrastructure led to an abundance of empty
buildings and needy landlords desperate for tenants. During the early 1900s,
several middle class black families moved from Black Bohemia (a different
community) to Harlem, and as a result many more followed. At first, many white
residents did what they could to keep African Americans out of the neighborhood.
Overcome with defeat, many of the white families eventually moved out. According
to A&E (history.com), a number of outside factors led to a population boom
between 1910 and 1920. Black people began to migrate in droves from the South to
the North; influential figures such as W.E.B. Du Bois led what eventually became
the Great Migration.
Between 1915 and 1916, natural disasters took place in
the south that put many black sharecroppers and farmers out of work. Besides
Mother Nature, Northern businessmen came down south to recruit black workers for
their companies. By 1920, more than 300,000 southern African Americans had moved
up north. Harlem was among one of the most popular destinations for many of
these families.
Along with a population increase came a Black Pride
movement. Men like W. E. B. Du Bois and Langston Hughes worked relentlessly to
ensure that African Americans received due credit for cultural areas of
influence. Hughes was one of the most important writers (poets) and activist of
the Harlem Renaissance. His work and creativeness was influenced by his life
during his time. According to an article titled “10
Most Famous Poems by Langston Hughes”, Hughes is also known as one of the
earliest innovators of a literary form of art known as jazz-poetry. Jazz poetry
is poetry, in which the poet responds to and writes about jazz. Some of his most
famous poems are “The Negro Speaks of
Rivers” published in 1921, and
“Harlem (Dreams Deferred)” in 1951.
Aside from Hughes, there were many other writers who made
an impact during the Harlem Renaissance. A woman by the name of Zora Neale
Hurston was a fixture during this black cultural mecca. According to a biography
titled “Zora Neale Hurston,” not only
was she a novelist, Hurston was also an extraordinary folklorist and
anthropologist who recorded cultural history. Born in Alabama in 1891, Hurston
became a staple in New York, where she became famous for her novel titled
Their Eyes Are Watching
God and shorter pieces like “Sweat”
and “How It Feels to be Colored Me.”
She established herself as a force to be reckoned with, with her spot-on
representations of the African American experience.
Works Cited
Anirudh. “10 Most Famous Poems by Langston Hughes.” Learnodo
Newtonic,
22 July 2016, learnodo-newtonic.com/langston-hughes-famous-poems.
History.com Staff. “Harlem Renaissance.” History.com,
A&E Television Networks, 2009,
www.history.com/topics/black-history/harlem-renaissance.
“Zora Neale Hurston.” Biography.com,
A&E Networks Television, 23 Jan. 2018,
www.biography.com/people/zora-neale-hurston-9347659.
