THE
THE
BACKGROUND
HARLEM
OF
RENAISSANCE
Hisao
Take
Harlem
merely
the
as an
largest
concentration
Negro
brought
the
African,
together
Negro
the
city
the
man
village;
the
peasant,
the
poet,
musician,
artist,
criminal,
exploiter
It is difficult
Negro
an extraordinarily
Harlem
as its
we cannot
center.
general
Besides,
call it "renaissance"
despite
the
nantly
centered
historical
Harlem,
intellectuals
shortness
pageant
as the
and
of
in
time
black
Mecca
of
man
the business
first_
of Negro
life..
Negro
and
from
man,
and
the
American;.
the Negro
the
of the-
town
and
the professional
worker,
not
Harlem
preacher
merely
cultural
Renaissance,
a literary
movement
a very
in the true
sense
the
in the
the
it lasted
and
Harlem,
people
and
the
and
outcast.("
it was
exciting
the
is not
but
elements
of the North
accurately
because
world,
Indian,
adventurer
social
in Manhattan
the
diverse
West
student,
and
to define
Renaissance,
the
the
from
Here
in
of so many
South;
man,
of this.
community
in history
It has attracted
has
instance
KISHIMOTO
its
that
arose
of time
limitation,
Renaissance
the.
but
with
so that
However,..
predomi-
was
a
great_
of America.
America's
of various
movement
of the word.
geographic
Harlem
culture
short
alias
black
cultural
-- 45 -
culture,
endeavors:
attracted
novelists
many
and.
-poets such as Langston
Hughes (1902-1967)
, Countee Cullen (1903-1946),
Claude McKay (1891-1948), George S. Schuyler
(1895—), Wallace
man (1902-1934), and Walter White (1893-1955): artists,
actors such as Aaron Douglass
Robeson
(1898-1976), Bessie
Louis Armstrong
figures
Henderson
the Harlem
Renaissance
1920 and ended in 1929. According
autobiography
until
the
Great
(1893—).
was a decade that
to Langston
Hughes
Baker
prominent
S. Johnson
show, Shuffle Along (1921), played the prologue
lasted
and
(1900—),
Josephine
(1898-1952); and other
such as Alain Locke (1893-1954), Charles
that
Waters
(1900-1972), Duke Ellington(1899-1974),
It is said that
sance
musicians,
(1898—), Charles Gilpin (1878-1930), Paul
Smith (1894-1937), Ethel
(1903-1975), «' and Fletcher
Thur-
began in
the musical
to the Harlem Renais-
Depression.
He said
in his
Big Sea:
The 1920's were the years of Manhattan's
began with Shuffle Along, Running
black Renaissance.
Wild and the Charleston.
It
Per-
haps some people would say even with The Emperor Jones, Charles
Gilpin,
and the tom-tom
was the
musical
revue,
at the
Provincetown.
Shuffle Along,
that
send-off to that Negro vogue in Manhattan,
just before the crash
folks,
Administration.
It is interesting
tion
that
University
gave
down the
hill toward
it
a scintillating
which reached
of 1929, the crash that
and all rolling
But certainly
its peak
sent Negroes,
the Works
white
Progress
(3)
that
brought
for Hughes,
Shuffle Along was the real attrac-
him to New York,
while
enrolling
at Columbia
was his mere excuse:
To see Shuffle
Along,
was
the
main
— 46 —
reason
I wanted
to go to
'Columbia . When I saw it, I was thrilled
honey of a show.
Swift, bright,
a dozen danceable,
singeable
The now famous
and delighted
funny,
tunes.
choir director,
rollicking,
Besides,
Hall Johnson,
to fame
in the second
Florence
act, Trixi
Smith
Josephine
prima
donna,
Baker were merely
the audience—including
The
Harlem
and the composer,
its emergence:
can be approached
third,
celebrated
Everybody
from many
of six factors
the Great
was in
points
are responsible
of
for
VOGUE
At the turn
and musicians
which
Migration
and World War I;
fifth, the Jazz Age; and six, the re-
IN THE
Before the Negro vogue started
mitivism,
Jarboro,
black and white intellectuals.
NEGRO
writers,
And Caterina
first, the Negro vogue in the world; second, the birth of
between
it in Europe.
to
"He May Be Your
in the chorous.
the New Negro Movement;
lationship
in the show.
and the internationally
a conglomeration
a black intelligentsia;
fourth,
Eubie Blake and
me. U)
Renaissance
view, but basically
with
Mills skyrocketed
sang
Man But He Comes to See Me Sometimes."
now a European
and gay,
the music and played and acted
Miller and Lyles were the comics.
It was a
look who were in it:
William Grant Still, were a part of the orchestra.
Noble Sissle wrote
...
they
in Manhattan,
of the twentieth
began to appreciate
had
them was Pablo Picasso,
WORLD
discovered
there
century,
were signs of
many
and experiment
in the
African
arts.
painters,
with
Among
who became one of the first to appreciate
expressiveness
of primitive
sculpture.
can sculpture
was a major factor
--
pri-
the
It is believed, in fact, that Afriin his development
47
-
of cubism.
In
1907, for example,
he painted
Matisse,
by many
considered
of the twentieth
into color.
1913.
century,
One of Picasso's
introduced
visiting
best frirnds,
Jean Cocteau,
tremendous
spiritual
BIRTH
been
treated
became
history,
did not
great
OF
Picasso and
a historical
But although
beings
hero
know
that
joy and sang
for
Abe Lincoln
freed
Wid da gun
and
An I ain't
Ah got mah
a while,
songs
such
git ginna
American
on their
before
the
of freedom
emancipation
so they
as:
da trigger,
whipped
it was a
of black culture.
history,
the nigger,
wid
For whites
with
no mo.
ticket
~. 48 .~,_
War.
his
their
people
Most
had
Abraham
Emancipation
resolution
to black
praised
black
backs.
Civil
it was an epoch-making
it did not give true
grow-
INTELLIGENTSIA
of prejudice
as human
their
move out of the state of isola-
of American
burden
on black as
it bolstered
the vitality
A BLACK
the heavy
Proclamation.
ican
writer,
who was French,
influence
to for a long time.
uplift discover
the very beginning
to carry
For blacks
and helped them
tion they had been confined
Lincoln
poet,
jazz to Europe.
ing a self-awareness
never
the
Hugues Panassie,
well as white people in America.
had
Cafe" in 1912-
arts through
The Negro vogue in Europe had a profound
From
French painter
"Moorish
by the African
in his works.
Henri
Morocco, gained a new insight
led him to paint
was influenced
showed this interest
D'Avignon."
to be the most important
after
This experience
and playwright,
"Les Desmoiselle
in Amer-
people.
They
freedom
with
Out
of this
An
I'm
heah
headen
thicket,
for
da golden
As a result of emancipation,
step out of enslavement.
black people in the South made their first
The regulations
wiped away
by the
emancipated
from the shackles
proclamation,
were established
the Civil War,
and
they were
economic
some puplic primary
schools for black
year by year. Sociologically,
managed
to entered
class, though this was very difficulty
because
of the attitude
after
1900, that
people
arose.
American
Among
black
Economically,
a real
Despite
burgeoning
these
blacks produced
them
and
difficult
15, 1870) to the United
movement,
circumstances
fields.
activities
States
Tuskegee
Senate;
Institute
served
in
as one
and W. E. B. DuBois (1868-
for black people as a leader
posed the conciliatory
especially
for and by black
figures in various
(1856-1915), who founded
of the Negro
1963), who worked
middle
of south-
1890 and
when he was just 25 years old and who later
of the leaders
the
after
R. Revels (1827-1901), who was the first
(Februry
Booker T. Washington
after
of enterprises
changing
prominent
were Hiram
to be elected
Alabama
it was not until
not
enslavement.
even
ern whites.
blacks
made them slaves were
but unfortunately,
increasingly
a few
that
of social
In both the South and North,
people
sho. (5
among those
of Booker T. Washington.
who op-
In the liter-
ary field we find Sutton E. Griggs (1872-1930), Charles W. Chesnutt (18581932), Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906), W. E. B. DuBois, James Weldon
Johnson (1871-1938), and others, all of whom helped establish
for the Harlem Renaissance.
Gloster
Of the fiction written
a foothold
before the twenties
says:
During the years between 1890 and World War I, American
-
49 -
Negro
fiction was, with few exceptions,
nutt
and Dunbar
Chesnutt,
stories
experimented
Dunbar,
of white
groundwork
of writers,
by glorifying
however,
and Ellis wrote
The next generation
the
Renaissance.
only what pitfalls
from the early period,
of
his oppressorsC6'
However,
tenth",
mentality.
the novelists
period
however,
they
had
A. Bone appretenth:
found that their literary
negative.
It taught
There was a substantial
without
one
as DuBois(7) put it,
Robert
was largely
to avoid.
the cultural
of the talented
of Negro novelists
early
A
the propaganda
and poets had established
the black middle-class
from
answered
were the "talented
ciated this fact in describing
them
and
to give the Negro a more favorable
these writers
serious limitation—they
heritage
tradition;
Durham
him and exposing
for the Harlem
representing
Ches-
people in which the race problem was avoided.
Page and Dixon and sought
By the twenties
race conscious.
in the plantation
Mrs. Dunbar-Nelson,
decided majority
position
extremly
legacy
which the Negro Renais-
sance could not have occurred.
This legacy was a firm economic
base from which
intelligentsia
level of culture
a true
Negro
could evolve.
which the race had attained
without
triumph
of the rising Negro middle class. (8)
true intelligentsia
vious period.
to "the
intellectuals
appeared
quite different
Generally
will to power"
from this tendency
That struggle
by the 1920's. was not
attained
In the twenties
a struggle.
speaking,
was the burden and the
one after
from the talented
middle-class
or a. narrow-minded
is indispensable
-50--
The
another,
tenth
forming
a
in the pre-
minds have a tendency
conservatism.
for a new era.
During
To part
the years
,of the Harlem Renaissance , Harlem became the central
new intelligentsia
gathered
GREAT
people"
in a block.
MIGRATION
The most important
migration
Actually,
blacks had started
struction
period
_people.
AND
WORLD
to the
migrating
North
I
their
that
started
in the 1890's after
in the South had ended.
Earlier,
WAR
element that made Harlem the "Mecca of black
was the great
,erners had regained
place where the
in 1910.
the Recon-
At the time, white
power and many problems
confronted
Southblack
in the 1860's, the Ku Klux Klan in gown and hood
had appeared and persecuted black people day and night.
-the South and the North
, though especially in the South,
the social
position
the segre-
gation
of black people was regulated
laws of each state
laws).
These
Supreme
laws,
Court,
,of the "separate
(grandfather
moreover,
which
unreasonably
clause,
through
but equal" doctrine
in
poll tax, and Jim Crow
were unfortunately
upheld the legality
Later,
supported
of segregation
in its decision
by the
on the basis
of the Plessy vs
Ferguson case in 1896. Even worse, lynching spread across the country,
-though it was most prominent in the South
. When black people attempted
to cross
lynching,
waited
some statistics,
the color line, all kinds of obstructions,
for them.
however,
I cannot
find an accurate
it is said that
the number
•ching was more than 2,522 from 1889 to 1918.
that
to
fulfill their
flee from their
—economic
potential
as human
exploitation
, political
intimidation,
accounting
of deaths
of
by lyn-
It is obvious, therefore,
beings
homes and the more oppressive
especially
black
conditions
injustice
people
had to
in the South
in the courts,
and mob violence.
But the great
migration
of 1910 to 1917 was based on a different
- 51 -
reason.
Development
of industry
who
believed
in the North
black
people,
living
in the South as sharecroppers
of World War I further
North,
that
promoted
and big businessmen,
focused
living
became
in the city was better
all
their
lives.
the development
wanting
to gather
The
a cheap
During
from Europe
this
decade
had stopped
the percentage
that
force,
especially
since
the total urban
immigration
of the population
black people already
in the cities,
North—
Detroit,
in Chicago,
York, Harlem
became
writers,
poets,
brought
together:
Jessie
and other
Fauset
Virginia,
Kentucky,
Movement,
of many factors,
provided
Fisher
from
Barthe
The cityward
tend-
black
slums
of
in the
In New
all over the country
Charles
Countee
Wallace
Washington,
Cullen
Thurman
Walter
from
from
from.
White
from New Orleans. (9)
as I have said before,
but the most important
both
S. Johnson
were
MOVEMENT
emerged,
-
had diluted:
New York.
California,
NEGRO
Renaissance
which
and
from Kansas,
; .. Richmond
NEW
potpourri
from
from
Douglass
Salt Lake City, Rudolph
The Harlem
many
to
black "city" in the world, and many
celebrities
Bontemps
Aaron
from Atlanta,
created
was from Philadelphia,
Anna
27 percent
which added to the population
Philadelphia,
the biggest
population.
from Europe
of black people.
ency of black people from the South,
in the
with the war.
it is estimated
Prior to this time
than.
labor
of black people in the North soared from approximately
34 percent.
for
outbreak.
of industry
their eyes on the black people in the South,
immigration
a magnet
the
52
--
major
through
a
was the New Negro
energy
and
directional.
drive.
Its
principal
catalysts
,(1887-1940): the former
later, the National
were
DuBois
was a propellant
Association
and
Marcus
of the Niagara
for the Advancement
,(N. A. A. C. P. ), and an author whose philosophical
-found impact on the Harlem Renaissance;
and
founder
of the Garvey
The Niagara
pression
Movement
Movement
,century,
was started
Movement,
was the
being supported
he gave a memorable
Georgia,
which
your children,
thers,
the prevalent
them
leader
expressed
of the
people.
that
teardimmed
no foreigner
Negro
In 1895
in Atlanta
in nursing
of your mothers
in our humble
atti-
his position:
to you in the past,
with
and fa-
eyes to their
way,
we shall
stand
by
can
approach,
ready
to
lay down our lives, if need be, in defence of yours, interlacing
industrial,
commercial,
that
make the interests
shall
of both races one.
essential
-efforts tending
&forts
and
into stimulating,
and intelligent
progress.
of all .
If anywhere
there
are
of the Negro , let these
encouraging,
citizen ... C10)
53
yet one as
for any of us except in the high-
to curtail the fullest growth
be turned
the most useful
development
In all things that
as the fingers,
to mutual
There is no defence or security
eest intelligence
our
civil, and religious life with yours in a way
Care purely social we can be as separate
the hand in all things
op-
In the late nineteenth
by the sick-bed
following
a devotion
submissive
at the Cotton States Exposition
so in the future,
you with
writings had a prothe latter was the
influential
our loyalty
matching
and often
graves,
most
more than adequately
As we have proved
of Colored People
by both black and white
address
and,
in 1905 not only to challenge
for black people , by Washington.
Washington
Movement
(Back to Africa).
by white society but to change
tude advocated
M. Garvey
and making
him
In this
black
speech we can see Washington's
problem.
As a leader
of black
people
stand: first, black people should be patient
second,
and cities of America
gaged in organized
stress industrial
struggles;
rather
and faithful
and
the following
to white people;.
going on strikes
third,
than academic
black
and build:
or being en-
people
education;
by both races.
the•
should
His thoughts
When we consi-
of black people at that time, his policy might be consid-.
and rather
wise. But paradoxically
the maltreatment
and subservient
of his people.
his policy probably
With his insistence
sus-
on a menial_
image, this position denied blacks a moral stance form_
they could demand
equal or fair treatment.
In 1903 DuBois published
mendous
without
popular and supported
der the situation
red natural
labor
training
were exceedingly
which
he took
toward
black people should till the fields, clear the forests,
the railroads
tained
basic attitude
sensation.
The Soul of Black Folk and created
In this book he criticized
the
thought
and
a trephi-
losophy of Washington:
So far as Mr. Washington
trial
Training
strive
for the masses,
with him ...
injustice,
preaches
Thrift,
we must
belittles
the emasculating
tions, and opposes the higher training
value the
efforts
and ambition
minds, —so far as he, the South, or the Nation,
unceasingly
and firmly oppose them.
ful method
we must strive
to men, clinging
of the
Fathers
and
apologizes
for
privilege
and.
of caste distincof our brighter
does this, we must.
By every civilized and peace-
for the rights
unwaveringly
and Indus-
hold up his hands
But so far as Mr. Washington
North or South, does not rightly
duty of voting,
Patience,
which the world accords
to those great words which the sons-
would fain forget: "We hold these truths
- 54 ---
to be self-
evident.
That
all men are created
by their Creator
are lif e, liberty,
with certain
assertion.
The
century
against
the Niagara
first
black
articulated
social,
the downfall
a
it was the historical
political
and political
of
the
agitation
discrimination.
was ordained
twentieth
and
protest
Unfortunately,
at its inception
for conditions
predecessor
zed in 1909 and absorbed
which was based on this
organization
of
and idealistic
that among these
of happiness" C1
protest
of the movement
they are endowed
rights;
Movement,
program
economic,
was too militant
unalienable
and the pursuit
In 1905 he organized
equal; that
because it
at that time.
However,
of the N. A. A. C. P. , which was organi-
most of the
membership
of
the. Niagara
Negro Improvement
Association
Movement.
Marcus
Garvey established
Universal
(U. N. I. A.) in 1914 in Jamaica
gave up attempting
planned
and came to New
to attain
racial
set up to a government
equality
in Africa
One of his first steps was to establish
a country,
Africa,"
for American
a temporary
of its radicalism.
black masses,
and the
battlefields
black
of Europe.
soldiers
In order
Negro Factories
Corporation
company)
also
and
However,
to realize
and
published
propagandize
his ideas.
was deported
in 1927.
of pride and assertiveness
who
---
55 -
government
without
"Back to
of the black
middlethe
from
the
his plan, he organized
the
just
returned
Star
Line
(a steamship
The Negro World,
In 1923 he was arrested
in the minds
and
attracted
newspaper,
His plan, though
He
black people.
his thought
the Black
a
States
His assertion,
by the intelligentsia
class because
in 1916.
in the United
and he became its first president.
was not accepted
York
for mail fraud
not a success,
of black people.
to
and
left a feeling
DuBois
contributed
spiritual
his
basis
efforts
of the
for it with
with
the
he
to publish
Renaissance
through
in
his
In the
one
young
black
writer,
critic,
scholar
Negro.
The
Negro"
to
thing
to
or
'in
term
get
be
his
harassed
term
"New
I.
in
the
of
argued
condemned
'helped
spirit
vision
outstanding
through
member
rights
for
and
poets
op-
to
the
pride
of
Harlem
blackness
and
centers
black
social
for the
bogey
of
is to
in the
people
to
be
with
"Old
is,
it
Negro."
of the
tide
down'
worried
"C12>The
spirit
of
contained
the
concept
was
Garvey
whites
after
New
Negro
on
"Old
or
The
of
for
'kept
new
that
New
"some-
of
the
The
as
burden.
beach
and
indi-
World
War
as follows:
line
of
the
be explained
primarily
in terms
of a
of social
economic
freedom,
of a
and
of an extortionate
of conditions.
-
of
or a social
concept
human
philosopher,
substitute
worried
American
face
improvement
a
black
nationalism
this
a
editor
or defended,
aspects
of opportunity,
even
about
like
among
rush
as
be
representative
Locke,
and
of blackness;
the
the
Alain
used
the
status
vogue
to seize,
a chance
an
to
a social
pride
by
Negro
city
up'
expressed
explained
northern
new
writers
the
the
contributed
science,
was
about,
and
wash
social
implications
or patronized,
the
The
obtain
the
was
the
or
directly
Locke
and,
as a staff
people
was
Negro"
of a subordinate
by
who
intellectuals
Negro"
accelerated
rectly
rid
manhood,
refusal
black
he created
Folk,
later
to
Garvey
black
person
"New
place',
over,
dignity,
and
young
work.
gave
of Black
movement
gave
in that
movement.
twenties
the
the
also
he
The Soul
Movement
their
that
Renaissance
his book,
propelled
of blacks;
portunities
Harlem
Niagara
N. A. A. C. P.,
manhood
of
to the
56 -
• With
and
each
heavy
toll,
successive
wave of it, the movement
mass movement
towards
—in the Negro's
of the Negro becomes more and more a
the larger and the more democratic
case a deliberate
to city, but from medieval
During
Langston
the summer
Hughes,
to "burn
to modern. (13)
of 1926 Wallace Thurman,
ly of the arts called Fire.
cation
flight not only from countryside
America
and four others
Zora Neale Hurston,
decided to publish a Negro quarter-
Hughes explained
the need for such a publie
up a lot of the old, dead, conventional
idea of the past, epater le bourgeois into a realization
of the younger
attitude
Negro writers
in another
We younger
our individual
Negro artists
dark-skinned
laughs.
If they are not, their
who create
selves without
upon us with strength
spirit,
to express
If white
If they are not, it doesn't
The tom-tom
are pleased
displeasure
doesn't
matter
strong
matter.
cries and
we are glad.
either.
We build
as we know how, and we stand
free within
the images
ourselves. (15)
of the New Negro Movement
flashes
and pride.
The Jazz Age decorated
„sin.gs jazz.
his basic
fear or shame.
And ugly too.
JAll
of pain,
intend
people
on top of the mountain,
these passages,
now
If colored
our temples for tomorrow,
fresco
of the existence
essay:
We know we are beautiful.
From
Negro-white
and artists". {14)He made clearer
people are pleased we are glad.
the tom-tom
chance
AGE
the Harlem
and exuberance.
Renaissance
Today,
In thi.s sense, jazz is the greatest
-
57 =w-.
with
everyone
a turbulent
knows
and
gift from American
blacks
to people
After
was
World
in full
vibrant
of the
War
swing
heart
of
world.
I jazz,
which
in both
races.
the
spirit
America,
both
black
and
the World
War
I with
great
War to End
All Wars"
Democracy"
became
to have
youth
burned
The
passion
and ideals
the
"War
of World
flaming
discovery
that
cried
on the Victorian
of primitivism
dream
appeared
hell,
for
and
the
by doubts
and
it was an epoch
the era of Freud,
Twenties,.
the stuffiness
era and drank
people,
"the
Safe
I's
out against
white
of
in
World
In the Roaring
to black people.
moved them?
name
the
whites
awakening
participated
the
bootleg
Jazz gave consolation
to these
and self-confidence
so profoundly
in
War
For
as it was called,
ful vitality
who
people,.
essential
newly
doubts and spiritual struggles,
heavily in defiance of authority.
the
and were tortured
and the Lost Generation.
restraints
a
to Make
sexual revolution,
artificial
epitomy,
youth
values.
youth
of black
The American
of disillusion
traditional
soul
of
white.
out in the aftermath
of heart-searching
the
struggle
the war victims.
of America's
out the
It was
and
and
felt the bitterness
mistrust
rings
and
whiskey
and the wonder-
while
it gave self-
What is the spirit of jazz
J.A. Rogers
(1880-1966), the author
of Sex and Race, declared;
The true spirit of jazz is a joyous revolt from convention,
authority,
boredom,
even sorrow—from
fine the soul of man
and
hinder
its
everything
riding
the
air.
songs the "Blues,"
and
who invented
they weren't
capable
sive attempt
to cast off the blues and be happy,
of satire or deception.
of sordidness
-~, 58
that would con-
free
The Negroes
even in the midst
it called their
custom,
and sorrow.
on
Jazz was their explocarefree
And that
happy,
is why it
has been such a balm for modern
machine—ridden
and convention
—bound society .
It is the revolt
of the emotions
against
social circumstances
and awakened
repres-
sion. (16)
Jazz penetrated
belliousness
and youthful
Originating
in New Orleans
dance hall and brass
spirit
in the minds
where
and hearts
jazz spread
to Chicago and then to
in the water.
By the twenties
York's jazz style was in full swing; Louis Armstrong
Chicago
Bessie
Smith,
playing active parts
and
Fletcher
in the Harlem
Henderson
Renaissance.
But jazz to me is one of the inherent
in America:
tom-tom
the eternal
revolt
subway
trains,
laughter,
and pain swallowed
influence
BETWEEN
WHITE
of white
Movement
al leaves
no doubt
Movement
was not
group
were
also
noted:
of Negro life
in the Negro
work;
world,
the
a world
tom-tom
BLACK
INTELLECTUALS
intellectuals
Some
white
on
Negro
the
Negro
critics
domination,
Renaissance
have charged
but a sober
character.
The
a "vogue"
by white
"literary
life ...
In the
intiated
by the
long
of
of joy and.
of its indigenous
attempt
soul—the
INTELLECTUALS
with
a serious
there,.
in a smile. "7)
not be overestimated.
New Negro
but
work,
from
such as Duke
expressions
in a white
New
come
Hughes
beating
weariness
and work,
AND
The
tom-tom
against
RELATIONSHIP
ought
had
to New York, and other great jazz musicians
Ellington,
of a nation.
it was played as the music of the.
band march,
New York like a wave rippling
an echo of re-
Negro
run,
-
artist
however,
59 -
the
Negro
apprais-
New
to interpret
the
Negro
faddists,"
his
novelist
own.
out--
grew his primitive
suspected
phase; meanwhile
it helped him to discover un-
values in his own folk culture. (18)
As Bone has pointed out, we must not overestimate
the influence of
-white intellectuals
on the Harlem Renaissance . However, it is a fact
that
during
-vriters
white
and poets to publish
helped
years
the twenties,
substantially
intellectuals
their
more than
very few black writers
Two of the rare exceptions
very often
helped
black
novels and poems or in other ways
they had in times past.
Before these
and poets had been assisted
were Charles
Chesnutt
by whites.
and Paul Laurence
Dunber.
For
Chesnutt,
Walter
a short-story
writer
and
novelist,
Hines Page, an editor of The Atlantic
At the start
of his career,
,of "passing ,"
favor
but
showing
unfortunately
of the more acceptable
Mifflin took over and published
writing
Page
"conjure"
dealing
rejected
tales.
his short
,discovered
by Helen Trusdell
and became
the
days.
subject
manuscript
Afterwards,
stories
the first black poet to win national
of those
with
this
in
Houghton
and novels, including
The House Behind the Cedar (1900) and The Marrow
Dunbar,
been
career his iden-
the sad reality
he sent a draft
had
Monthly, who aided him
.as a sponser. During the early part of Chesnutt's
tity as a black was concealed,
there
of Tradition
recognition,
famous
after
(1901).
had been
publication
of
his first book of poems, Oak and Ivy (1893). In 1895, when he published
his second volume, Majors and Minors, William Dean Howells reviewed
it very favorably.
With the assistance
of Robert Ingersoll and Howells,
he was held in high esteem as a black poet.
During
writers
seriously
the Harlem
by whites
Renaissance
but the subject
and sympathetically
not only was help given
matter
of many white writers
with the black situation,
--- 60 -
'to black
dealt
such as Eugene
O'Neill's
Emperor Jones (1920) and All God's Chillun Got Wings (1924);
Waldo Frank's
Holiday
(1923);
(1925) DuBose
Heyward's
Sherwood
Porgy
Anderson's
(1925);
Heaven (1926); and E. C. L. Adams's
Carl
Dark
Laughter
Van Vechten's
Congaree
Sketches
Nigger
(1927)
and.
Nigger to Nigger (1928).
All these writers
picture
of America's
time cultual
white
attempted
in the
years
operation.
among
as
of the
serious
attention
to the true-
white
readers.
Before this,
their
I have said before,
the relationship
I don't
of prejudice
blacks
collaboration,
intellectuals;
to arouse
Harlem
between
Renaissance
white
in American
"favors"
fashionable
night
and cabarets
society
White
years
to be amused,
Hughes,
whites
packed
club for gangsters
Negro patronage,
and
unless
because
Jim_
certain.
became the most.:
shut their doors,
those days, said:
the expensive
But I was never there,
co-
people rushed to the clubs..
people began to come to Harlem
they
time.
brought
and .the proprietors
reviewing
more
at that
When Harlem
spot in New York, white
there
on black people.
for black people.
toward
people.
were no serious problems..
Crow was active and the Negro vogue among
unwelcome
on a few
and black
pushed
wish to imply that there
and segregation
depended
Cotton
in droves.
Club on Lenox Avenue.
the Cotton
monied whites.
For several_
Club was a Jim Crow-
They were not cordial
you were a celebrity
like Boj angles.
to
So=
Harlem Negroes did not like the Cotton Club and never appreciated_
its Jim Crow policy in the very heart
Nor did ordinary
ward
Harlem
where formerly
after
Negroes
sundown,
of their
like the growing
dark
community.
influx of whites
flooding the little
cabarets
to-
and bars.
only colored people laughed and sang, and where now-- 61 -
the strangers
were given the best ringside
at the Negro customers --like
For black intellectuals,
with white
ample,
intellectuals
amusing
however,
tables to sit and stare
animals
in a zoo. (19)
closer and more expansive
were progressing.
Zola Neale Hurston,
who was on the staff of Fire and did important
on the folklore
of the South,
owed not a few white
deal.
Her case was a "little
youth
she was always
white
people, some of whom simply
represent
bit funny"
getting
of H. L. Mencken,
scholarships
who wrote
investigations
persons
paid her just
a great
has said: "In
and things
her
from wealthy
to sit around
and
poet and novelist
in the Harlem
Renaissance
autobiography
A Long
friendship
with white
I soon
Davis,
Opfer,
Maurice
and was called "l'enfant
John
Cornelia Barnes,
Gold became
acquainted
Braber,
Becker,
and
terrible,"
In his
about
friendly
with
his
The Liberator
Art Young, Boardman
Adolph
Maurice
Dehn,
Sterne,
Mary
Genevieve Taggard,
contributing
The Liberator
figure
intellectuals:
Louis Untermeyer,
these
Claude McKay was a prominent
and sympathizers:
Stuart
debts to Mencken.
Way from. Home (1937), he wrote
became
collaborators
Baldwin,
Black No More (1931), was a disciple
and his books showed his literary
Jamaican-born
associated
as Hughes
for ex-
the Negro race for them, she did it in such a racy fashion. "(2°)
George S. Schuyler,
During
relations
editors
Hugo
Arturo
Heaton
William
Robinson,
Gellert,
Giovanitti,
Vorse,
Lydia
Ivan
Roger
Gibson,
Gropper and Michael
at the same time
that
I joined
staff. (21)
days the role of Van Vechten
with a multitude
of black
intellectuals
- 62 --
was unique
in that he
and assisted
them.
When Hughes
wanted
to publish
Blues, in 1926, Van Vechten
1928 with Van Vechten's
not part of the Harlem
Coloured Man.
cannot
assistance,
As evidence
of influence
Vechten's
His literary
artists
and intellectuals
personal
wardness
among
of individual
entrusted
Negro writers
their
of an Ex-
Vogue."
gave him conFiction,
citing
Bone has also
Renaissance:
the
Negro
Renaissance
a warm atmosphere
His one-man
successful
his white
amply rewarded
who was
was
in which
of both races could break down their taboos
association.
paign was eminently
In
with blacks, enough
Voices of American
salons provided
A. Knopf.
The Autobiography
of this, Hugh M. Golster
in futhering
The Weary
Weldon Johnson,
relationship
to the Harlem
role
unique.
against
James
as "the Van Vechten
his importance
Van
him to Alfred
school, published
space in his book, Negro
his range
admitted
introduced
About Van Vechten's
be said.
siderable
his first book of poetry,
"know the Negro" cam-
in overcoming
prejudice
and awk-
His efforts
on behalf
were indefatigable,
and were
contemporaries.
and artists
in later years when many of his former
literary
proteges
efforts to his care. (22)
NOTES
1) Alain Locke, "The New Negro," Black Voices: Anthology of Afro-American
Literature, Abraham Chapman, ed. (New York and Scarborough, Ontario: Mentor
Books, 1968), P. 515.
:2)
.3)
Ms. Baker's date of birth has been reported as either 1903 or 1906.
Langston Hughes, The Big Sea (New York, Hill and Wang, 1940), P. 233,
4)
Hughes, ibid., pp. 223-24.
5) Anonymous, "Freedom", Black Writers of America: A Comprehensive Anthology, Richard Barksdale and Keneth Kinnamon, (New York, Hawthorn Books,
1974), p,1~
--63—
6) Hugh M. Gloster, Negro Voices in American Fiction (New York, Russell &
Russell, 1948) , P. 32.
7) Julius Lester . ed., The Seventh Son: The Thought and Writings of W. E. B.
DuBois, Volume I, (New York, Vintage Books, 1971), P. 385.
$) Robert A. Bone, The Negro Novel in America (New Haven and London,
Yale University Press, 1958) p. 50.
9) Langston Hughes, "Harlem Literati of the Twenties,"
of Literature, XXII (1940)
The Saturday Review
10) Booker T. Washington, Up from Slavery (New York, Doubleday & Company
Inc., 1963) P. 160.
11)
The Seventh Son, ed. Lester, op. cit., pp. 365-66.
12)
Alain Locke, op. cit., p. 513.
13)
Locke, ibid p. 515.
14)
Hughes, The Big Sea, op. cit. p. 235.
15) Langston Hughes, "Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain", The Black Aesthetic,
Addison Gayle, Jr., ed. (New York, Doubleday & Company Inc., 1972) p. 172.
16)
J.A. Rogers, "Jazz at Home," ibid., pp. 104-105.
17)
Hughes, "Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain,"
18)
19)
Bone, The Negro Novel in America, op. cit., p. 61.
Hughes, The Big Sea, op. cit., pp. 224-25.
20)
Hughes, ibid., p. 239.
21)
Claude McKay, A Long Way from Home (New York, Harcourt Brace & World,
ibid., p. 171.
1970) P. 99.
22)
Bone, The Negro Novel in America op. cit., P. 60-
64 —