Ch 20-2 The Harlem Renaissance
The Main Idea
Transformations in the African American community contributed to a
blossoming of black culture centered in Harlem, New York.
Reading Focus
Content Statement 14/Learning Goal:
Describe social changes that came from the Harlem
Renaissance, African-American migration, women’s suffrage
and Prohibition.
Ch 20-2 Vocab
• Zora Neale Hurston: African American writer and folklore scholar who
played a key role in Harlem Renaissance. Acclaim for short stories and
plays.
• Great Migration: major relocation of African Americans from 1910
into the 1920’s to northern cities.
• Harlem Renaissance: a blossoming of African American art and
literature that began in the 1920’s.
• Marcus Garvey: African American leader who promoted self-reliance
for African Americans; he started the Universal Negro Improvement
society (UNIA). He wanted African Americans to build base of
economic success by operating business enterprises.
• James Weldon Johnson: NAACP leader and writer; wrote poetry with
his brother.
• Langston Hughes: African American poet who describe the rich
culture of African American life using rhythms influenced by jazz
music. Wrote of African American hope and defiance. Major impact on
Harlem Renaissance.
Ch 20-2 Vocab
• Paul Roberson: African American actor and singer who promoted
African American rights and left wing causes.
• Jazz: type of American music that blends several different musical
forms from the deep south.
• Louis Armstrong: Leading African American jazz musician during
Harlem Renaissance; he was a lamented trumpeter whose style
influence many later musicians.
• Bessie Smith: African American Blues Singer who played an important
role in Harlem Renaissance.
1)The Great Migration
• Beginning around 1910, Harlem, New York, became a favorite
destination for black Americans migrating from the South.
• Southern life was difficult for African Americans, many of whom
worked as sharecroppers or in other low-paying jobs and often faced
racial violence.
• Many African Americans looked to the North to find freedom and
economic opportunities, and during World War I the demand for
equipment and supplies offered African Americans factory jobs in the
North.
• African American newspapers spread the word of opportunities in
northern cities, and African Americans streamed into cities such as
Chicago and Detroit.
• This major relocation of African Americans is known as the Great
Migration.
• As many as 500,000 African American moved to the north.
2)African Americans after World War I
Tensions
• Many found opportunities in the
North but also racism.
• Racial tensions were especially
severe after World War I, when a
shortage of jobs created a rift
between whites and African
American workers.
Raised Expectations
• Another factor that added to racial
tensions was the changing
expectations of African Americans.
• Many believed they had earned
greater freedom for helping fight for
freedom overseas in World War I.
• This tension created a wave of
racial violence in the summer of
1919.
• Unfortunately, not everyone agreed
that their war service had earned
them greater freedom.
• The deadliest riot occurred in
Chicago, Illinois, when a dispute at
a public beach led to rioting that
left 38 people dead and nearly 300
injured.
• In fact, some whites were
determined to strike back against
the new African American attitudes.
• Racially motivated riots occurred in
about two dozen other cities in
1919.
• Fought for democracy abroad.
Thought should have equality at
home.
3)Life in Harlem
• New York City was one of the northern cities many African Americans moved to
during the Great Migration, and by the early 1920s, about 200,000 African
Americans lived in the city.
• Most of these people lived in a neighborhood known as Harlem, which became
the unofficial capital of African American culture and activism in the United
States.
• A key figure in Harlem’s rise was W.E.B. Du Bois, a well-educated, Massachusettsborn African American leader.
• In 1909 Du Bois helped found the National Association for the Advancement of
Colored People (NAACP) in New York City. Wanted to end discrimination and
mistreatment of African Americans.
• Du Bois also served as editor of a magazine called The Crisis, a major outlet for
African American writing and poetry, which helped promote the African
American arts movement.
• This movement was known as the Harlem Renaissance.
4)Marcus Garvey
•
•
•
•
Another famous figure of the era was Marcus Garvey, a Jamaicanborn American who took pride in his African heritage.
Garvey’s Rise
Conflict with Du Bois
Formed the Universal Negro
•Garvey thought the NAACP
Improvement Association
discouraged African American self(UNIA), which promoted self- confidence, and that their goal of
reliance for African Americans breaking down barriers between
without white involvement.
races threatened African racial
purity.
Garvey wanted American
blacks to go back to Africa to •Du Bois and the NAACP were
create a new empire.
suspicious of UNIA too, and The
Crisis published an investigation of
Garvey wanted African
UNIA.
Americans to have economic
success. His Black Star Line
•The FBI charged UNIA with mail
promoted trade among
fraud, and UNIA collapsed when
Africans around the world.
Garvey went to prison and then
left the country upon release.
About 2 million mostly poor
African Americans joined
UNIA.
5)A Renaissance in Harlem
• Harlem in the 1920s was home to tens of thousands of African
Americans, many from the South, who felt a strong sense of racial pride
and identity in this new place.
• This spirit attracted a historic influx of talented African American writers,
thinkers, musicians, and artists, resulting in the Harlem Renaissance.
Writers
• Little African
American literature
was published
before that era.
• Writers like Zora
Neale Hurston and
James Weldon
Johnson wrote of
facing white
prejudice.
Poets
• Poets like
Claude McKay
and Langston
Hughes wrote
of black
defiance and
hope.
• These poets
recorded the
distinctive
culture of
Harlem in the
1920s.
Artists
• Black artists won
fame during this era,
often focusing on the
experiences of
African Americans.
• William H. Johnson,
Aaron Douglas and
Jacob Lawrence were
well known.
6)Harlem Performers and Musicians
The Harlem Renaissance helped create new opportunities for African American
stage performers, who only began being offered serious roles on the American
stage in the 1920s.
Performers
Musicians
• Paul Roberson came to New
York to practice law but won
fame onstage, performing in
movies and stage productions
like Othello.
• Harlem was a vital center for
jazz, a musical blend of several
different forms from the Lower
South with new innovations in
sound.
• Robeson also played in the
groundbreaking 1921 musical
Shuffle Along, which had an
all-black cast.
• Much of jazz was improvised, or
composed on the spot.
• Louis Armstrong was a leading
performer on the Harlem jazz
scene.
• Josephine Baker was also in
that show, and she went on to
• Other performers included
a remarkable career as a
Bessie Smith, Cab Calloway,
singer and dancer in the U.S.
and composers Duke Ellington
and in Europe, where black
and Fats Waller.
performers were more
accepted.