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3
The Harlem Renaissance,
1917–1935
INTRODUCTION
Surprisingly, perhaps, it can be argued that the bloody and violent Civil War failed
to change dramatically the status of African Americans. It is true that the Thirteenth
Amendment to the U.S. Constitution outlawed slavery and granted former slaves their
freedom, and that the Fifteenth Amendment guaranteed the right to vote. Moreover,
in theory at least they were now legally equal to white Americans. In practice, however, African Americans remained a generally despised, feared, and isolated segment
of the American population. Regarded as inherently inferior because of their race, they
were treated with contempt if not hatred and subjected to humiliations and violence
at will.
As had been the case before the Civil War, the vast majority of African Americans
continued to live in the South. Southern blacks comprised more than  percent of the
total black population of almost  million in  (out of a total national population of
. million.) During and immediately after the war, there was very little black migration—either from the South to the North or from rural areas to urban areas within the
South itself.
In the decades after the Civil War, the condition of most blacks showed little or
no improvement. The triumph of white racism in the South after the failure of radical
Reconstruction robbed African Americans of both their political rights and their civil
liberties. A plethora of restrictive laws prevented African Americans from freely exercising the suffrage, and the white community frequently resorted to intimidation and
violence to keep blacks “in their place.”
Moreover, the emancipated slaves remained economically subservient. Plans to
give them land (“forty acres and a mule”) never materialized and they were forced to
earn a living as either sharecroppers or tenant farmers. Under the former, the sharecropper worked land owned by someone else and shared the fruits of his labor with
the owner, who was frequently absent. Tenant farmers rented land for a yearly fee and
could dispose of the crops they raised as they saw fit. Under each system, the farmer
usually borrowed money for essentials against the value of the crops that he would
raise. Both systems virtually guaranteed that the farmer would be poverty-stricken
and beholden in perpetuity to the landowner and the lender, who were sometimes one
in the same.
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Northern concern for the welfare of the freed slave—always secondary to the grander
and more abstract concepts of emancipation and national unity—faded with time as the
North turned its attention to other interests, including westward expansion and rapid
industrialization. One might have expected that the industrialization process, with its
insatiable demand for labor, would have spurred black migration from the South to the
North. At first, such was hardly the case. The U.S. population in  totaled  million.
Of that number, . million were African American. Of the . million blacks, . million continued to live in the South. Thus, although absolute numbers of African Americans increased for both the North and the South, the proportional distribution of blacks
(more than  percent of the total lived in the South) remained almost identical to the
figures for .
During this stagnant period, a few halting steps were taken to improve the lot of the
black American. Perhaps the most important occurred in the field of education. In the
aftermath of the Civil War, sympathetic whites and a few galvanized blacks established
institutions of higher education such as Fisk (), Howard (), and Morehouse
(), which evolved into “elite” universities for African Americans. At the same time,
several schools, such as Hampton Institute (), were established to educate emancipated slaves in the “useful arts” such as carpentry or farming, or to train African American teachers. By far the most famous and important of these schools was Tuskegee
Institute, founded in .
Booker T. Washington, then  years old, was selected to head Tuskegee. Washington quickly emerged as black America’s most influential spokesman, a position he
continued to hold into the th century. Setting the tone for African Americans, Washington advised blacks to work hard, gain an education, live soberly, and build their own
community rather than actively and aggressively seeking integration into white society on equal terms. This “be all that you can be” approach did not explicitly condone
white racism; however, it did subtly imply that for the foreseeable future the best that
American blacks could hope for was a benign, second-class status. As inappropriate
as Washington’s “accommodationist” views seem today, they appeared quite reasonable for the time. Moreover, Washington always held out hope that racial reconciliation
could someday be achieved.
Toward the start of the th century, other African Americans began to challenge
Washington’s vision. The opposition to Washington soon coalesced around W. E. B.
DuBois, an impressive writer and thinker. Unlike Washington, DuBois directly confronted American racism. From his perspective, African Americans were as American
as anyone else and, consequently, deserved equal treatment. Furthermore, he firmly
rejected any suggestions that black skin signaled inferiority. For DuBois, blacks had as
much right to be proud of their racial heritage as any Caucasian. However, DuBois was
no democrat. Rather, he was an elitist who believed that the future of black America
should be turned over to a “talented tenth,” or the best and the brightest among African
Americans.
In , DuBois played the leading role in founding the Niagara Movement, which
demanded an end to discriminatory practices and full enforcement of civil rights, including the suffrage, for blacks. Four years later, he was instrumental in establishing
the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and subsequently edited its influential journal The Crisis.
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THE HARLEM RENAISSANCE, 1917–1935
53
W. E. B. DuBois, the first African American to earn a PhD from Harvard, played
a major role in the Harlem Renaissance.
Directly challenging American racism,
Dubois demanded equal treatment for
black Americans. (Courtesy of the Library of Congress.)
World War I proved to be an important catalyst for African Americans. The industries of the North and Midwest demanded labor at unprecedented levels, and southern
blacks responded by trekking north in what is known as the Great Migration. Between
 and , this internal migration swelled the African American population in the
North and Midwest by some , people, to a combined total of . million, almost
all of whom lived in urban areas. During this decade, the black population of New York
City grew from , to ,,and that of Chicago from , to ,, an increase of almost  percent. Nevertheless, in  more than  percent of the country’s total African American population of . million continued to live in the South.
Economic opportunity was not the only reason for the northward migration. Life
in the South had continued to deteriorate for African Americans. Not only was there
little chance for betterment in their economic fortunes, but the burdens of racism had
increased with time. In southern states, segregation was the law of the land, and to win
elections, southern politicians habitually portrayed themselves as unbending in their
hatred of blacks. Moreover, violence against blacks was on the rise. In the first decade of
the th century, there were  reported lynchings of African Americans.
The migration of southern blacks was not particularly welcomed in the North. Not
only did the blacks compete with whites for jobs, thereby holding down wages for all,
but their mere presence served to reveal an overlooked aspect of northern life; namely,
white northerners were as racist in their attitudes as southern whites. The tension
boiled over on several occasions, taking the form of urban race riots. Two of the worst
took place in East St. Louis () and Chicago (), resulting in the deaths of more
than .
World War I also witnessed a huge influx of African Americans into the segregated
U.S. Army, many of whom believed that service to their country would ameliorate conditions for blacks after the war and dispel racial hatred. Booker T. Washington had died,
but W. E. B. DuBois endorsed this view and urged it on his fellow African Americans.
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Almost , blacks entered the army at this time and , served in France.
While most black units were assigned menial duties, approximately , African
Americans saw combat. Several combat units served with distinction, especially New
York’s th Infantry Regiment, known as the Harlem Hellfighters.
Nevertheless, with war’s end, little had changed: racism remained the norm; Jim
Crow laws reigned supreme in the South; and lynching, which had never disappeared,
returned with the extrajudicial murder of  blacks in , the highest number in 
years. No wonder that a disillusioned DuBois wrote in The Crisis:
We return
We return from fighting.
We return fighting.
Make way for democracy. . . .
At first glance, Harlem seemed an unlikely setting for the unprecedented African
American cultural flowering known as the Harlem Renaissance, or New Negro Movement. Located in far northern Manhattan, Harlem as a settlement dates back to the th
century. In the early years of the th century, real estate interests intensely developed
Harlem in anticipation of a housing boom. When the boom turned to bust, the value of
the surplus housing stock declined precipitously, and blacks, who were willing to pay
a premium for housing, moved in as whites moved out. Although African Americans
had lived in Harlem since the s, the black population did not explode until the first
decade of the th century. Aided immeasurably by the Great Migration, black Harlem
grew by leaps and bounds, until , blacks resided there by .
When the th Infantry Regiment—now returned from Europe—victoriously
marched up New York City’s Fifth Avenue and filed into the heart of Harlem, it symbolically kicked off the Harlem Renaissance that had been in gestation for at least a decade.
Not only was the Harlem Renaissance a great flowering of African American culture
and creativity, it also helped to define the relationship of blacks to white America. Perhaps most importantly, it struggled to ascertain the essence of “blackness,” thereby laying the groundwork for James Brown’s proud yet defiant chant of  years later: “Say It
Loud, I’m Black and I’m Proud.”
The crown jewel of the Harlem Renaissance was an outpouring of literary works
that examined—sometimes sympathetically, sometimes searingly—the African American experience. Essays, poems, and short stories, frequently appearing in journals or
periodicals such as DuBois’s The Crisis or Opportunity, edited by Charles S. Johnson,
augmented a number of significant novels.
A clarion call came from Claude McKay, a Jamaican immigrant who published “If
We Must Die” in the July  issue of The Liberator. In this seminal poem, McKay urged
blacks to stand up and confront their oppressors, echoing the words of Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata that “it is better to die upon your feet than to live upon your
knees.” Another seminal moment occurred in  with the publication of Howard University professor Alain Locke’s The New Negro. In this work Locke trumpeted contemporary African American achievements and hinted that the best was yet to come.
Among the Harlem Renaissance’s black literati, sweetness and light did not always
prevail. Much of the discord resulted from extreme egotism, a condition not unknown
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THE HARLEM RENAISSANCE, 1917–1935
55
to the general intellectual community. However, in the case of the Harlem Renaissance
it also reflected a significant difference in cultural attitudes. At one end of the spectrum
was Countee Cullen, the well-mannered, sensitive, one-time son-in-law of W. E. B.
DuBois, who embraced “high culture.” For Cullen, it was much more important to be a
poet than a Negro poet, and while he never ran from his race, his works were intended
for the universal pantheon of literary greats.
At the other end of the spectrum stood Langston Hughes, perhaps the most famous
of the Harlem Renaissance writers. Hughes not only proclaimed his blackness, but he
also embraced the common African American at the expense of the black elite. In his
famous  essay, “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain,” Hughes praised black
cultural achievements as something unique, neither beholden to nor integrated with
the white norm. He also called attention to the rich cultural fabric woven by countless
millions of nameless African Americans and criticized the “talented tenth” mentality,
epitomized by Cullen, that seemed intent on conforming to white standards.
In addition to the prodigious literary output, African American acting, dancing, and
music proved exceptionally creative. The multitalented Paul Robeson provided the best
example. He was joined by others, such as dancers Bill “Bojangles” Robinson and Josephine Baker, and composers Eubie Blake and “Fats” Waller. Blues and jazz now entered
the American mainstream. The unvarnished wailing of Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey
brought home both the breadth and depth of emotion that provided the foundation for
the blues. Meanwhile, jazz greats such as trumpeter Louis Armstrong and pianist Willie “The Lion” Smith wowed audiences, both black and white. One of the most famous
of these cultural icons was Duke Ellington, the debonair and sophisticated band leader
whose signature tune, Billy Strayhorn’s “Take the A Train,” referred to the express subway train from lower Manhattan to Harlem.
The Harlem Renaissance was not limited to black Americans. As hundreds of thousands of African Americans migrated from the South to the North—and Harlem in
particular—a large influx of blacks from the Caribbean also descended upon the northern end of Manhattan. Black immigrants from Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Holland’s
Caribbean colonies, and British outposts such as Jamaica gave Harlem a truly international flavor. In fact, one of the most famous figures of the Harlem Renaissance was an
immigrant.
Marcus Garvey, originally from Jamaica, arrived in Harlem in . Garvey, an inspirational speaker who was largely self-educated, never denied his African, or black,
roots; rather, he embraced them with fervor as he launched his “back to Africa” movement. Concluding that integration for blacks was not only impossible but undesirable,
Garvey espoused Pan-Africanism and black nationalism. Garvey’s Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) glorified Africa and all that was black. He called for
unity among the blacks of the world, a return to African origins, and black economic
self-sufficiency. Although Garvey was convicted of mail fraud in , jailed, and eventually deported, the Amsterdam News, Harlem’s newspaper of record, credited him with
teaching blacks that “black is beautiful.”
On the surface, Harlem in the s was a radiant jewel bursting with intellectual
energy, creative juices, and a lush lifestyle. However, for most African Americans life remained something of a burden. Most continued to live in the South, where they faced
unrelenting poverty, unyielding legal segregation, unremitting racial hatred, and the
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unending threat of violence. For those who migrated to the North, conditions were not
much better. For most of these migrants their fate included menial labor for low pay,
racial hostility, and ghetto-like living conditions. Harlem was no exception. Most African Americans who lived there did so in poverty, squalor, and black-on-black violence.
With the coming of the Great Depression and the end of national prosperity, Harlem
went into decline. There is no specific date marking the end of the Harlem Renaissance;
however, by the mid-s it was rapidly fading away.
INTERPRETIVE ESSAY
james m. beeby
The Harlem Renaissance was perhaps one of the most important cultural and political
movements in the United States in the th century and is certainly a significant moment in African American history. Although the definitions of the Harlem Renaissance
vary, most scholars agree that it was one of the most significant expressions of black culture in American history, that it heralded a new and sophisticated approach to race, and
that it is one of the most important explorations of the black experience in America. It
was also a time of great creativity and artistic growth in African American culture. The
Harlem Renaissance’s reach extended far beyond New York City to other urban areas
across the North, into Europe (especially Paris and London), down to the Caribbean,
and also to the continent of Africa. Although the Harlem Renaissance was not a specific event as such, it was a cultural movement lasting from about  to . It was a
movement fostered and nurtured by civil rights groups, but it took on a life of its own
in what was called “The New Negro Movement.” It attempted, and in many cases succeeded, in transforming how African Americans saw themselves and how others saw
black society; it was forward-looking and part of modernism, and it showed confidence
and self-awareness in its call for full political and social equality for African Americans.
The Harlem Renaissance changed America and had a major effect on how Americans
thought about race and race relations, both in the short and long term, and its impact
on American arts and letters is long-lasting and significant.
One scholar has noted that the Harlem Renaissance was something of a forced phenomenon, that it was propelled by the civil rights leaders of the s and s, such as
W. E. B. DuBois, as a way to both improve race relations in the United States and to end
segregation and discrimination. DuBois and others believed that by showcasing black
creativity and beauty and rejecting the racial stereotyping of African Americans, the arts
and letters could break down the wall of racism. In short, the “talented tenth” (the name
that DuBois gave to the small cadre of black leaders at the time who would serve as role
models for all African Americans) would lead the charge for equality from the top down.
The Harlem Renaissance, the civil rights leaders believed, would help to emancipate African Americans from the yoke of oppression and the negative images of black people.
The role of the civil rights movement and the somewhat forced nature of the Harlem
Renaissance is true, but only to a degree. Once the Harlem Renaissance was in full flow
by the early to mid-s, it took on a life of its own and moved in ways that nobody
expected, with writers and activists such as Langston Hughes, Wallace Thurman, and
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57
Zora Neale Hurston rejecting the prescribed “positive” images of African Americans
enunciated by the civil rights leadership and seeking, instead, a more nuanced and realistic, perhaps even gritty, representation of black society and culture that reflected a
more authentic expression of the black experience in the early th century.
There were several causes of the Harlem Renaissance, though an artistic movement
does not fit into neat historical categories; indeed, movements by writers and poets
have a life of their own. A key component behind the Harlem Renaissance is the actual physical space of Harlem itself. Harlem was (and still is) a predominantly black
neighborhood in Manhattan. In the s, its borders were about six blocks from east
to west (from Lexington Avenue to St. Nicholas Avenue) and from north to south it
stretched about one mile, from th Street down to th Street (the size of the area
is disputed by historians, and in the s Harlem expanded north and south by about
 blocks in each direction.) Thus, Harlem was quite a small area of New York City, and
by , an estimated , residents squeezed into this overcrowded neighborhood
(though the actual population may have been higher). Harlem was full of all classes of
people: poor, middle class, immigrants, migrants, women, men, educated, uneducated,
religious groups and leaders, civil rights organizations, the United Negro Improvement
Association (UNIA), and socialists and communists (to name but a few). Nightclubs,
juke joints, dance halls, the Apollo Theater, and other great landmarks enticed white liberals and those fascinated with black culture into the streets of Harlem and into hangouts in the alleyways and darkened corners of city blocks. Although it was the time of
Prohibition, liquor flowed freely. As the neighborhood grew and became more alluring,
more people migrated to Harlem. Thus, the physical space, location, and demographics
helped to cause the Harlem Renaissance, in large part because the intoxicating reputation drew in people of all ranks and stations in life.
The attraction of Harlem was thus part of the cause of the Harlem Renaissance.
Another key element, concomitant with the allure of the city, was the “Great Migration” of African Americans from the South to the North. From the s onward, predominantly rural African Americans left the South in record numbers, seeking new
opportunities in urban centers of the North and an escape from the Jim Crow laws,
disfranchisement, and racial violence that epitomized the old confederacy at this time.
This migration transformed the black diaspora and ultimately created large black urban
communities across the North. During the s, a new wave of black migrants traveled
to the North, and in particular to New York City, and specifically to the black neighborhood of Harlem. But the Great Migration in and of itself did not cause the Harlem
Renaissance; it was merely one of the ingredients that allowed for the complexity and
vibrancy of the era.
Another key cause of the Harlem Renaissance was the legacy of World War I. Returning black soldiers, who had served in segregated units, refused to accept the racist and segregated society of the United States; indeed, racial violence was on the rise
again. The war had opened their eyes to new opportunities and ways of living, and it
stoked new levels of black militancy. One of the greatest writers of the Renaissance, the
radical Claude McKay, wrote the novel Home to Harlem (published in ), which centered upon a returning black veteran’s experiences in the United States. The old racial
status quo was unacceptable to veterans and also to African Americans of all stripes,
including key civil rights leaders. The returning veterans were met with violence from
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WHAT HAPPENED?
whites in the South, but also with racial pride from African Americans. In Harlem, the
march up Fifth Avenue of Harlem’s th Infantry Regiment (known as the Hell fighters for their valor and courage), on February , , symbolically ushered in a new era
in race relations and a steeled determination of a new generation of African Americans
to break the shackles of oppression and violence. It was time to fight for democracy and
equality at home.
After World War I, Harlem became the destination for African Americans of all
classes and occupations. In fact, Harlem became recognized as the “race capital” of the
world. Black immigrants from Africa, the Caribbean, and South America swarmed into
the neighborhood and interacted with African Americans. There was a vibrancy and
excitement there. Black artists, musicians, and those looking to make it big in the world
flocked to the neighborhood. Some became famous; others had fleeting careers. Meanwhile, the vast majority lived in overcrowded houses, suffered from discrimination, and
struggled in poor-paying jobs. But the streets were crowded with performers, religious
leaders, political bosses, and street vendors. Black leaders extolled the virtues and opportunities in Harlem. Black radicals, such as the black nationalist Marcus Garvey, created excitement and passion in the black community.
Within this mix, one can detect the growing radicalism of African Americans and
black immigrants. Led in part by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the National Urban League (NUL), African Americans rejected the racist stereotypes of black people (such as the mammy figure, the black rapist,
the blackface minstrel, and others) and instead embraced a more political, visible, and
self-conscious view of themselves that celebrated their history (particularly African history) and culture, coupled with demands for equal rights, better living conditions, and
an end to racial violence. Black leaders earnestly believed that the arts, particularly high
art (literature, painting, and poetry for the most part), could help to solve the racial
problem in the United States, because it would showcase the quality and beauty of African American culture.
Although the Harlem Renaissance was an expression of high art, one needs to remember that Harlem was a very diverse environment with a great deal of popular culture, such as music, dance, and theater. The sound of jazz at the Cotton Club, Connie’s
Inn, rent parties, and in small hole-in-the-wall bars permeated throughout Harlem.
There were the blues, provocative black dancing, night clubs, and opportunities galore for entertainment. Ironically, in a nation that still oppressed African Americans
and witnessed increased levels of violence in the South and the reemergence of the Ku
Klux Klan with all its despicable actions and attitudes, middle- and upper-class whites
flocked to Harlem to partake of and enjoy all that black culture had to offer.
The Harlem Renaissance produced some of the most outstanding black writers, artists, and performers in American history. Indeed, those who were active in Harlem included Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, Wallace Thurman, Zora Neale Hurston, Jessie
Faust, Nella Larsen, Aaron Douglas, Duke Ellington, and others. Black intellectuals and
political leaders such as DuBois, Alain Locke, Walter White, A. Philip Randolph, and
James Weldon Johnson, played a pivotal role in nurturing black talent. Immigrants such
as Claude McKay also helped to transform the African diaspora’s intellectual and literary world in the crucible of Harlem. Although the members of the Harlem Renaissance
often disagreed with one another over the role and function of art, as well as the form
that art would take, each of them played a pivotal role in the Harlem Renaissance.
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According to the leading scholar of the Harlem Renaissance, David Levering Lewis,
the movement passed through three distinct phases. The first phase, in which black
writers and performers looked to whites for inspiration, began in about  and ended
in  after the publication of Jean Toomer’s highly influential novel-poem Cane. The
second phase, which lasted from late  to about the middle of , was dominated
by the civil rights leadership of the NAACP and NUL as they attempted to produce a
positive and uplifting image of African Americans in art, literature, and performance.
The third and final phase began in  and lasted until about March  (though
scholars disagree on the ending date). This witnessed African American artists exploring themes of black identity and rejecting a merely positive and uplifting image of blackness in America. Although these three phases are distinct, there were crossovers and
influences of each in the other phases.
In the first phase of the Harlem Renaissance, black artists and writers sought to at
least borrow from the work of leading white intellectuals and writers to produce African American cultural expressions. Many of the early writers and performers spent
their time with white intellectuals in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York
City, working and interacting with Bohemians and radicals, particularly during the Red
Scare of  and the Palmer raids. This early period perhaps should be known as the
proto–Harlem Renaissance. Scholars argue that it began with Claude McKay’s essay
“The Harlem Dancer” (published in ) and later his collection of poetry entitled Harlem Shadows. Other key texts in the early period included James Weldon Johnson’s The
Book of Negro Poetry (). The first phase is said to end with the publication of Jean
Toomer’s spellbinding magnum opus Cane in . In this poem-novel, Toomer uses
rhythms, repeated images, and sounds to evoke the nature of African American life in
the South, the problems in the urban North, and the interracial unity of the soul through
Karintha, a black beauty, and Fern, a woman of two races. Although Cane sold in small
numbers, its effect on the black intelligentsia and white supporters was electrifying, in
part because it illuminated the sophisticated nature of black writing, and also because it
did not fit into any known literary genre—was it a poem or a novel? It was neither; it was
something radically new, and it broke all the rules of the canon. In many respects, the
first phase sowed the seeds for the great intellectual and creative energy of the Renaissance, because it helped to attract scores of talented individuals to the city and foster a
vibrancy that was in itself contagious.
The second phase of the Harlem Renaissance witnessed both the deliberate and conscious attempt by civil rights leaders to use art and literature in the war against segregation and discrimination, and to counteract the negative and pervasive stereotypes of
African Americans. The leaders of the NAACP and NUL saw an opportunity to use the
arts and letters to attack racism and discrimination. For example, Walter White, the assistant secretary of the NAACP, persuaded Paul Robeson to give up his law career and
pursue an acting career, and he convinced Nella Larsen to become a novelist. Charles
Johnson enticed the black painter, Aaron Douglas, to move to Harlem. Jessie Faust,
working at The Crisis, published works by Wallace Thurman, Claude McKay, Nella Larsen, George Schuyler, and Arna Bontemps in a deliberate and ultimately successful attempt to foster more creativity. Perhaps the work of Countee Cullen best exemplified
the second phase of the Harlem Renaissance. With the publication of Color in 
and Copper Sun in , Cullen, a native of New York, became the preeminent black
poet in the United States. His work was in the tradition of John Keats and other English
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poets, and his poetry was very subtle, with no direct engagement with race and racism.
The second phase did not begin on a certain date, but most scholars point to the Civic
Club gathering of March , , as the launch (at least symbolically) of the second
phase. The new editor of the NUL’s The Opportunity wanted to organize a celebration
of black writing to showcase the black experience. Over  intellectuals and artists attended, including Jessie Faust, Countee Cullen, and Alain Locke. Out of this meeting,
civil rights leaders such as Dubois wanted to celebrate black writing, art, and achievement, and support budding new intellectuals and writers who would constitute a vanguard for civil rights.
This period witnessed some of the most famous publications in the Harlem Renaissance. For example, Jessie Faust published There Is Confusion (), a novel about the
black middle class in Philadelphia as they struggled for respect and legitimacy against
racism. Alain Locke edited the monumental The New Negro (), perhaps the key text
in the Harlem Renaissance, that showcased the writings of dozens of black intellectuals and artists, including Langston Hughes, Jean Toomer, Claude McKay, Arna Bontemps, Helene Johnson, and Eric Walrond. In his famous introduction to the collection,
Locke explicitly stated that the Harlem Renaissance was part of the national and international movement for freedom and expression. Another fine example from the second
phase was Langston Hughes’ The Weary Blues (). Each of these works illustrated
the beauty of black culture and celebrated the black experience.
The civil-rights-dominated second phase cemented its power with patronage and
subtle uses of the media, particularly the NAACP’s The Crisis, edited by DuBois, and the
support of sympathetic white patrons such as Carl Van Vechten and Charlotte Osgood
Mason. From  to , money flowed into the pockets of black artists, writers,
and intellectuals, so that they could continue to produce works of high quality. Perhaps the most famous award was the Spingarn Award from the NAACP for outstanding achievement. As the output from the exponents of high art continued at a rapid
pace, the fame of several members of the Harlem Renaissance, such as Countee Cullen,
Langston Hughes, and Eric Walrond, stretched far beyond Harlem and New York City.
Indeed, the recognition and support elsewhere gladdened the heart of civil rights leaders, who earnestly believed that the arts could help dismantle discrimination. The approach to the second phase is perhaps best summed up by DuBois in his famous essay,
“Criteria of Negro Art,” published in The Crisis in . Here DuBois argued that black
art had an important role to play in race politics and that all art should promote civil
rights. DuBois believed that all art was propaganda, and that it should promote beauty
and a positive image of African Americans to themselves and to the rest of the world.
If the second phase reached full flow by , the voices of discontent at the direction of the Harlem Renaissance and the leadership of the civil rights patriarchs grew
louder within the black artistic community. The third phase of the movement witnessed
some of the most intense writing and cultural expression, as well as some of the deepest
divisions within the movement. Writers, poets, artists, and activists clashed with one
another over the representation of African Americans, the role of the black artist and
art in politics, and the image that African Americans wanted to portray to their own
community and the rest of society. These tensions and outright divisions had a life of
their own and helped to usher in a new period of creativity and expression. Although
there is no formal date for the beginning of this third and final phase, most scholars
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agree that it began in  with two major publications: Langston Hughes’ article, “The
Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain,” and Wallace Thurman’s periodical Fire!!
Hughes forcefully rejected the notion that art should be propaganda. Instead,
Hughes argued, black artists should express themselves as they pleased and not worry
about the reception from the audience or civil rights leaders (and, he implicitly meant,
whites). Wallace Thurman took this opposition further. He argued that the leading
journals, The Crisis and Opportunity, had stifled black creativity and pushed a limited
and narrow set of ideas and images, designed to appeal to a white audience and white
patrons. Thurman, in very strong language, exhorted black writers and performers to
discuss heretofore taboo issues, such as unsavory figures in black society, color issues
and discrimination within the black community, tensions between black men and black
women, and a defiant attitude against integration. Thurman was joined in this endeavor
by Aaron Douglas, Zora Neale Hurston, and others. However, the civil rights establishment did not surrender their agenda without a fight. Countee Cullen, Walter White,
and James Weldon Johnson continued to produce work in the civil rights vein. As a
result, the tensions and intellectual debates fueled an even greater period of creativity
and complex discussion of the role of race in American society, the representations of
black society (romantic or realistic), and the role of politics in art. However, the “rebels”
against the second phase rose in ascendancy after .
Perhaps the most famous and important novel that best represents the third phase
of the Harlem Renaissance was Claude McKay’s Home to Harlem (). The protagonist (leading character) in the novel, Jake, is a war veteran, and the setting is distinctly
working class. The novel describes in great detail the seedy side of black working-class
life, including gambling, fighting, and prostitution, as Jake travels, both physically and
emotionally, to Harlem. Although the novel outraged the civil rights leaders, the new
generation of black intellectuals embraced the work. Another key novel from  was
Nella Larsen’s superlative work, Quicksand. Here Larsen wrote about the tragic life of a
biracial woman, Helga Crane, who leaves a suffocating life in a black college in the South
and moves north to Harlem. She finds no release there and even vainly tries to seek acceptance in Europe, where she is viewed as an exotic “other.” Ultimately, she returns to
the South a broken woman in a loveless marriage. Larsen thus wrote a subtle analysis
of the problems that biracial women face in society, confronting not only rejection and
scorn from whites, but suspicion and distrust from blacks.
Not surprisingly, perhaps the most shocking novel came from Wallace Thurman
in  with the scandalous The Blacker the Berry. Here Thurman wrote about a black
woman, Emma Lou, who hates herself because she is too black and because black culture prefers lighter-skinned African Americans. The central issue in the book is the
color prejudice within the black community. Such a direct and strong treatment of a
taboo subject outraged the civil rights establishment and earned Thurman mixed reviews. Many critics quite rightly realized that Thurman was criticizing the Harlem Renaissance itself, because Thurman believed that it failed to allow for the total creativity
of the black artist. Some scholars point out that the creative divisions and political differences undermined the Harlem Renaissance from within. However, other scholars
correctly note that all intellectual movements have significant diversity, and strong
cultural transformation needs creative sparring, political differentiation, and even disagreement. There is no one experience. By the late s, the Harlem Renaissance had
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reached a maturity and sophistication to rival any intellectual and cultural movement
of the th century. If it was somewhat of a forced experience, by  it had a life of its
own and a powerful effect on American culture, race relations, and arts and letters.
By the late s, the Harlem Renaissance began a slow decline. The stock market
crash of October  and the resulting Great Depression not only had a catastrophic
effect on the country, it also devastated black communities all across the nation, as African Americans faced higher than average levels of unemployment, poverty, and business failures. The race capital of the world, Harlem, was not immune from the terrible
turmoil of the s. Money and patronage began to dry up and tempers frayed. But
the decline was not swift; in fact, for the first few years of the s, the Harlem Renaissance continued, with new publications and a desire to explicate the changing fortunes
of the black community. For example, in  Nella Larsen published Passing and Jessie Faust published Plum Bun. Tensions still existed between the new generation and
the civil rights establishment, but Harlem began to decline into poverty, and internal
squabbles in the Harlem Renaissance proved difficult to resolve. The most famous falling out was between Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston. DuBois grew increasingly frustrated and angry at the direction of the writers and focused on other issues.
Wallace Thurman died in , and several leading lights, including Faust and McKay,
lost their creative energy, so that by the end of  the Harlem Renaissance was in terminal decline. Personal misery, death, and socioeconomic hardships had taken their
toll. The Harlem Riot of  was the final nail in the coffin of the Harlem Renaissance,
even though some of the leading members, such as Zora Neale Hurston, continued
to produce high-quality work (most notably Hurston’s superb novel, Their Eyes Were
Watching God, published in ). But for all intents and purposes, the Harlem Renaissance was over by .
Although the Harlem Renaissance may indeed have ended about , its legacy endured. Many of the leading writers and advocates, such as Walter White and DuBois,
continued to work in the civil rights movement, while others continued to explore African American culture and write about life in the black community. Langston Hughes,
Countee Cullen, Zora Neale Hurston, and Aaron Douglas produced work of a high caliber. In addition, black writers, artists, and performers of the s and into the s
were influenced by the creativity of the Harlem Renaissance. No cultural transformation occurs in a vacuum, and there are always antecedents; and this is certainly true of
the Harlem Renaissance.
If the Harlem Renaissance failed to end racism and bring about civil rights for African Americans, that does not mean it was a failure. The question of success or failure
depends on what one means by success and failure. Most assuredly, the Harlem Renaissance was the most creative and perhaps most important period in the high arts for African Americans. It not only transformed the image and history of black culture, as well
as embracing its African roots, but it also revolutionized the way that African Americans saw themselves. It, perhaps, signaled the end of “double consciousness” for many
African Americans and the beginning of the end to seeing themselves through the eyes
of their oppressors (something that DuBois wrote so eloquently about in his The Souls
of Black Folk, published in .) African Americans now had true self-consciousness,
a usable and worthy past, and a vibrant intellectual movement that carried on, albeit in
a different light, for years to come.
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The Harlem Renaissance also had an impact on a new generation of writers, cultural
activists, and civil rights organizers and leaders. For example, superb black writers such
as Richard Wright, Maya Angelou, James Baldwin, and Amiri Baraka (to name but a
few), and even Toni Morrison, were clearly influenced by the Harlem Renaissance. It is
true that many of the individuals of the Harlem Renaissance were forgotten for awhile
and some died in poverty and obscurity; but by the s, a new generation of civil
rights leaders, black performers, and artists—particularly those influenced by the Black
Power Movement and the forces of decolonization and revolution in Africa and the
Caribbean—revived the reputations and careers of the great writers, artists, and poets
of the s and s. Indeed, black political leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr.,
Malcolm X, Ella Baker, and others were quite cognizant of the contributions of the Harlem Renaissance. Moreover, running through the entire period from the s to the
s, DuBois and A. Philip Randolph carried the torch from the Harlem Renaissance
to the next generation of civil rights leaders that emerged after World War II. Black cultural critics and performers of this generation are keenly aware of the Harlem Renaissance and what it meant to the black community and the United States as a whole.
The Harlem Renaissance had a profound effect on black art and culture, particularly high art such as literature, painting, sculpture, plays, and poetry. While the socalled Lost Generation of writers rejected American culture of the s (and many
left the United States in disgust at the rampant consumerism, the rise of mass culture,
and the legacy of World War I), the Harlem Renaissance writers, for the most part,
toiled and prospered in their critique of America and their engagement with the issues
and problems facing the United States, particularly race and racism. Even if the Harlem Renaissance was an expression of what DuBois called the “talented tenth” (in fact,
it was probably the top tenth of one percent), that talented group influenced American
society and culture for years to come. For example, Langston Hughes is regarded as the
preeminent poet of the th century and one of the most important poets in American
history. Alain Locke is still regarded as one of the most important intellectuals in the
American academy of the th century, and several performers (such as Duke Ellington
and Josephine Baker) are regarded as musical icons of the th century. But the Harlem
Renaissance is more than the sum of its parts. It was truly a transformative social and
cultural movement that had a broad impact on politics, race relations, and identity. As
a result, the Harlem Renaissance was an event that changed America, ushered in a new
era for black identity, and for a brief moment promised to transform black society and
culture. Students of all races and in many nations know more today about the Harlem
Renaissance than ever before. The legacy and significance of the movement is assured
and widely accepted by scholars of all ethnicities and political persuasions.
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Baker, Houston Jr. Modernism and the Harlem Renaissance. Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
. The author places the Harlem Renaissance within the context of the modernist movement of the s and rejects the notion that it failed.
Ferguson, Jeffrey B., ed. The Harlem Renaissance: A Brief History with Documents. New York:
Bedford Books, . A brief collection of original sources from the period, with a stimulating
introduction and overview of each author and major player in the Harlem Renaissance.
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WHAT HAPPENED?
Greenburg, Cheryl L. Or Does It Explode?: Black Harlem in the Great Depression. New York:
Oxford University Press, . A detailed overview of black Harlem and the lives of African
Americans and urban activism in the s and the s.
Huggins, Nathan I. Harlem Renaissance. New York: Oxford University Press, . A landmark
study that places the Harlem Renaissance in political, economic, and social context.
———, ed. Voices from the Harlem Renaissance. New York: Oxford University Press, . A definitive collection of over  selections from the Harlem Renaissance.
Hutchinson, George. The Harlem Renaissance in Black and White. Cambridge, MA: Harvard
University Press, . Places the Harlem Renaissance within the context of modernism and
highlights the relationships between white and black writers.
Lewis, David Levering. When Harlem Was in Vogue. New York: Penguin, . Detailed overview
of the major players involved in the Harlem Renaissance and the most insightful criticism and
interpretation by the dean of the study of the era.
———, ed. The Portable Harlem Renaissance Reader. New York: Penguin, . Excellent collection of the major poets, writers, intellectuals, and cultural critics from the period.
Locke, Alain, ed. The New Negro: Voices of the Harlem Renaissance. Reprint of  edition, New
York: Simon Schuster, . The most important contemporary collection of the leading activists, writers, and intellectuals from the period, it includes Locke’s provocative and spellbinding
introduction on the importance of black art and civil rights.
Singh, Amritjit. The Novels of the Harlem Renaissance: Twelve Black Writers, –. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, . Interpretative analysis of significant black
writers in the Harlem Renaissance, with a focus on class, color, and self-definition.
Wall, Cheryl A. Women of the Harlem Renaissance. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, .
The focus is on Jessie Faust, Nella Larsen, and Zora Neale Hurston and their centrality to the
Harlem Renaissance, as well as lesser-known women writers and artists.
Watson, Steven. The Harlem Renaissance: Hub of African American Culture, –. New
York: Pantheon, . This work also analyzes the music and club scene and the gay culture of
the Harlem Renaissance.
DUKE ELLINGTON (1899–1974)
One of America’s great composers, Edward Kennedy Ellington created such standards as
“Mood Indigo” and “Sophisticated Lady” in addition to jazz and sacred works. He used
vocal and instrumental timbres ingeniously to produce striking new textures, many of
which became regular components of the immediately recognizable “Ellington sound.”
Born in Washington, D.C., on April , , Ellington grew up in a stable, affectionate family. His father, a butler, provided a comfortable home life and steered his son toward a career as an artist. At seven, Ellington began to study piano. He continued with
musical studies at school and with a private teacher, Henry Grant.
At Armstrong High School (a Washington manual training school for African Americans), Ellington won a National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
poster contest. Subsequently offered a scholarship to the Pratt Institute of Fine Arts in
Brooklyn, New York, Ellington declined, already drawn by ragtime music and opportunities to play piano at dances and parties. By , he was making a good living painting
commercial signs and performing in public.
Ellington went to New York in  to try his musical wings. He failed miserably. He
and his Washington sidemen, Otto “Toby” Hardwicke (bass and sax) and Sonny Greer
(drums), had joined Wilbur Sweatman’s band, but after a few months, discouraged, they
returned to Washington, D.C. Early in , pianist Fats Waller convinced Ellington
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that Manhattan was the place to be. Ellington and his Washingtonians, among them
Elmer Snowden (banjo) and Arthur Whetsol (trumpet), headed there to work for Ada
Smith and, under Snowden’s direction, at Barron Wilkins’ Club in Harlem.
When the band was hired downtown by the Hollywood (later to become the Kentucky Club), Ellington took over as leader, and Fred Guy replaced Snowden on banjo.
The small group played at the club between  and  and began to increase in size.
Additions included two trumpets, one of them Bubber Miley, Joe “Tricky Sam” Nanton
(trombone), Harry Carney (baritone sax), Rudy Jackson (clarinet and tenor sax), and
Wellman Braud (bass). Ellington, Guy, Greer, and Braud, the rhythm section, stayed together for a decade.
In , the band moved to Harlem’s noted Cotton Club. Ellington’s star was rising.
The orchestra expanded again, adding clarinetist Barney Bigard, saxophonist Johnny
Hodges, and trumpeters Freddie Jenkins and Cootie Williams. Continuing at the club
until , the band was often broadcast, appeared in Check and Double Check (),
a film with Amos ’n’ Andy, and performed around the country. These years established
Ellington’s lead in the jazz world and consolidated his reputation for high standards in
improvisation and orchestral jazz.
Recordings of this period included many “jungle style” numbers. The sound, original to Ellington and Miley, depends on special effects (plunger mutes, mutes on all the
brasses, tom-toms, and unusual combinations of instruments). “Mood Indigo,” a hit in
the popular market, made Ellington famous around the world. His growing success depended in part on his individual players, each with unique tone color and timbre. The
special qualities each brought to the ensemble were blended by Ellington into a distinctive sound that defied replication.
Ellington’s successes were accompanied by heightened creativity. In , he experimented with longer compositions. Creole Rhapsody was followed by Reminiscin’
in Tempo and Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue. Popular hits of the period included
“Sophisticated Lady,” recorded in , “Solitude” (), and “In a Sentimental Mood”
(). In other works, his orchestrations matched melody in importance, as in Daybreak Express and Blue Harlem.
Between  and , Ellington’s most productive decade, the band toured the
United States and Europe (in  and ). The group contained six brasses, four
reeds, and four rhythm instruments. In , there were three major additions: Billy
Strayhorn, arranger, composer, and second pianist; Jimmy Blanton, bass; and Ben Webster, tenor sax. Strayhorn’s “Take the A Train” became the band’s theme. From  to
August , , the date a wartime recording ban began, Ellington’s work was, according to many, his most superb. During these years, he composed “Concerto for Cootie,”
“Ko-Ko,” and “Cotton Tail.”
New instrumentalists came on board during the s. By , there were  in the
band, including Ray Nance, who played trumpet and violin. Unfortunately, as musicians
came and went, the musical stability of the preceding years evaporated. Ellington’s compositions and performance reflected the uncertainty.
A series of ambitious annual Carnegie Hall concerts began in January  and
showcased Ellington works, such as Black, Brown and Beige, his first long composition.
Though not recorded because of the ban, the piece was important because it created a
major concert work from jazz elements. Other longer Ellington compositions were introduced in subsequent years, among them Liberian Suite and Night Creature. At the
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premiere of Night Creature, in March , the Ellington band joined forces with the
Symphony of the Air.
Despite a changing roster of musicians, Ellington continued to compose and to tour
during the s. He created the film score for Otto Preminger’s Anatomy of a Murder () and recorded with John Coltrane, Charles Mingus, and others. In his final
years, Ellington turned to composing sacred music. He was honored with degrees from
Howard University () and Yale University () and was awarded the Presidential
Medal of Freedom in . He continued to direct the band until his death in New York
on May , . His son, Mercer, took over the band.
Ellington was a perpetual innovator. Today, many of his ideas are taken for granted:
casting the voice as a jazz instrument, breaking and expanding the three-minute record
time, using the concerto form to display jazz soloists. Most know Ellington through his
songs, but critics and musicians admire the way he wrote for and led his orchestra. Billy
Strayhorn commented, “Duke plays the piano, but his real instrument is his band.”
justin harmon, et al.
HARLEM
Harlem is the historically black community in the borough of Manhattan in New York
City, where the African diaspora has come together in remarkable ways. Constantly
rezoned over the years, the neighborhood ultimately frames Central Park north from
th Street to th Street, between the East River and the Hudson River.
Originally named “Nieuw Haarlem” in , after the Dutch city, Haarlem, the land
was rebuilt by the Dutch West Indian Company’s slaves and renamed Harlem by the English settlers. At the turn of the th century, a mass migration of black peoples entered
the neighborhood, and Harlem was essentially an entirely black community by .
Known for its spacious sidewalks and streets, seductive Victorian-style brownstone
townhouses, and boastful residents, Harlem, affectionately called “uptown,” became a
synonym for elegant living and was a center of culture, intelligence, and fashion.
Guided by W. E. B. DuBois, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People opened a New York office in . The Universal Negro Improvement Association, led by Marcus Garvey, began operating in Harlem in . With principles
founded in economic independence and self-improvement, as well as political leaders of
black consciousness, the Harlem chapters soon flourished as the largest in the country.
The golden era of Harlem is indisputably the decades of the s and s during
the Harlem Renaissance. The movement of artistic rebirth generated a wealth of literature, art, dance, theater, and music. The legendary Harlem resident James Baldwin used
Harlem as the setting for his most famous novel, Go Tell It on the Mountain (). Zora
Neale Hurston wrote from her brownstone on st Street, and Langston Hughes was
lauded “the Poet Laureate of Harlem.”
Edgecombe Road, in the area dubbed Sugar Hill, was also a resident boulevard for
many Harlem activists. Lenox Avenue and Seventh Avenue housed more than  entertainment stops, including lounges, dance halls, theaters, cafés, art galleries, supper
clubs, bars, and grills. The Savoy Ballroom, closed in , was renowned for its improvised swing dancing, and such musical guests as Billie Holiday and Duke Ellington
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67
performing classic songs like “Take the A Train,” which immortalized the rapid mode
of transportation.
The Lafayette Theater, closed in , staged professional revues, where many of
the theatrical roles portrayed realistic lifestyles and personas of African Americans. In
, Orson Welles produced his famous black Macbeth at the Lafayette Theater. Other
famed acts include Bessie Smith and Bill “Bojangles” Robinson.
Inadequate housing contributed to racial unrest and health problems. Many grand
theaters were torn down or converted to churches during the latter s through the
s; however, the lack of building developments catering to modern renovations resulted in the preservation of some of the finest original architecture in New York City.
Many historic Harlem landmarks are still functioning today, including the world-famous
Apollo Theater, a staple of th Street and famed for introducing popular music; the
Theresa Hotel, where Cuban president Fidel Castro stayed in his famous  snub to
the U.S. government; the National Black Theater; the Lenox Lounge; the Harlem YMCA;
the Cotton Club; the Classical Theater of Harlem; the Audubon ballroom, where Malcolm X was assassinated; the Harlem Hospital; and th Street itself.
With Harlem’s history of marginalization and economic deprivation, towers of public housing projects are also scattered throughout Harlem. Landlords charged high
rents to people who earned low wages, and overcrowding became rampant. Residents
of Harlem rioted in , , , , and . While some riots were sparked by
police brutality, the  riot followed the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., and
the  riots were against white shop owners in th Street’s commercial strip.
Dozens of black nationalist groups mobilized in Harlem in the s, fighting for
better schools, jobs, and housing. The Nation of Islam’s Temple Number Seven was run
by El Hajj Malik El-Shabazz (Malcolm X) from  to . The Black Panthers organized a branch in Harlem in .
Harlem is also home to more than  Christian churches, most notably the Abyssinian Baptist Church. The churches often provided a home for cultural activities. For
example, the Dance Theatre of Harlem began when Arthur Mitchell started giving ballet classes in a church basement in , and the Harlem Boys Choir, a famous touring
choir and education program, was established in .
In the s, the character of the community changed as middle-class African
Americans left for the outer boroughs and suburbs. In the s, the introduction of
heroin and crack cocaine became widespread, producing collateral crime and violence.
By ,  percent of the buildings in Harlem had become empty shells, convenient
shelter for drug dealing and other illegal activity.
Harlem began to blossom again in the early s. Political and musical efforts promoted an antigang movement and drug-free lifestyles and raised standards of higher
education. In , former U.S. President Bill Clinton rented office space on West
th Street after completing his second term in the White House, a move seen locally as debatably the best or worst moment of gentrification, race versus class, in the
community.
In the neighborhood where Malcolm X (renamed from Lenox Avenue) and Martin
Luther King Jr. (renamed from th Street) meet, contemporary Harlem hosts a unique
mix of people. Here, residents of the neighborhood, including many well-known, legendary local characters, rub shoulders with visitors in front of the monument of Adam
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Clayton Powell Jr. under the state building named for him. And all can honor the community’s history at studies and lecture forums at the Schomburg Center for Research in
Black Culture.
Others simply prefer to spend their money in uptown’s black-owned businesses, like
Sylvia’s Soul Food restaurant, Carol’s Daughter beauty care shop, Magic Johnson’s AMC
movie theater and Starbucks café, Pieces of Harlem clothing boutique, the Studio Museum
of Harlem, the Harlem art gallery, and numerous quick stops for African hair braiding.
Harlem has been the muse for an uncountable number of such movies as Harlem Nights
and American Gangster, and such hip-hop anthems as Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power.”
LANGSTON HUGHES (1902–1967)
For more than five decades, James Langston Hughes wrote poetry, fiction, and plays
that were meant to capture the essence of the black experience in America. A prolific
writer of rare versatility, he wrote for the men and women he saw struggling, first for
survival and then for equality, from the s through the s. Born on February ,
, in Joplin, Missouri, Hughes was raised in Lawrence, Kansas, and Cleveland. After
a year spent in Mexico with his father, he entered Columbia University in , though
he withdrew the following year.
For four years, Hughes worked at odd jobs on board ship and abroad, while his verse
began to appear in magazines. In , he enrolled at Lincoln University near Philadelphia. By the time of his graduation in , he had published two volumes of verse, The
Weary Blues () and Fine Clothes to the Jew (), which earned him a reputation
among the writers and artists of the African American cultural movement known as the
Harlem Renaissance. He published his first novel, Not Without Laughter, in .
Hughes’ interest in music is evident from his first book of poetry. He took the blues
and blues musicians as his subjects and incorporated blues lyrics into the structure of
The Weary Blues’ title poem. Over the course of his career, Hughes experimented with
verse forms drawn from the lyric structures of the blues, bebop, progressive jazz, and
gospel. He regarded music as the most representative element of black culture; the body
of his poetry traces its evolution.
Hughes was an important voice of racial protest, as well as black affirmation. His
politics evolved as times changed, but he held fast to a belief in the black popular imagination, and he wrote for the broadest audience possible.
Hughes graduated from college just as the Great Depression hit, and the suffering
he witnessed radicalized him. Furthermore, visits to Haiti and Cuba convinced him
that the United States had acted as an imperialistic power in the Caribbean. In , he
left for a year in the Soviet Union, where he assisted with a film about race relations in
America and wrote some of his most radical poetry. The short stories collected in The
Ways of White Folks () reflect his growing anger.
The late s saw the production of a host of Hughes’ plays, including most prominently Mulatto, a tragedy about interbreeding among races, which ran on Broadway in
 (and was produced in a musical version called The Barrier in ). Other Hughes
plays produced in these years were Little Ham (), Joy to My Soul (), and The
Organizer (). His play Don’t You Want to Be Free? was the first production of the
Harlem Suitcase Theatre, founded by Hughes in .
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69
Hughes’ politics eventually grew less strident, and he wrote radio scripts supporting the U.S. role in World War II. In , he began writing a column for the African
American weekly newspaper Chicago Defender. He introduced the character of Jesse B.
Semple (nicknamed Simple), a black, urban working man whose shrewd humor filled
the column for  years. Hughes eventually filled five volumes with sketches based on
these columns, beginning with Simple Speaks His Mind ().
Street Scene, originally a play by Elmer Rice (), was turned into a musical, with lyrics
by Hughes and music by the composer Kurt Weill. It opened on Broadway in  and became a great success. Hughes bought a house in Harlem and began producing the books for a
number of musicals, including Simply Heavenly (), Esther (), and Port Town ().
His plays Black Nativity () and Jerico-Jim Crow () incorporated gospel music.
Hughes wrote several more volumes of verse, including Fields of Wonder () and
One-Way Ticket (). His Montage of a Dream Deferred () and Ask Your Mama
() took their forms from jazz; the latter was written for musical accompaniment.
The Panther and the Lash () reflects Hughes’ growing support for the black militants active in the civil rights struggle in the United States in the late s.
Hughes also produced two more collections of short stories, Laughing to Keep from
Crying () and Something in Common (); another novel, Tambourines to Glory
(); a history of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People,
Fight for Freedom (); and several books of fiction and nonfiction for children. He
died on May , .
ZORA NEALE HURSTON (ca. 1903–1960)
Zora Neale Hurston was a novelist, folklorist, anthropologist, and prominent member
of the circle of writers associated with the Harlem Renaissance of the s. Growing up poor in Florida, Hurston eventually studied at Howard University, Barnard, and
Columbia and became a complex and vibrant writer. An individualist who disavowed
frankly political art but whose work was suffused with themes of race and cultural expression, Hurston is best known for her  novel Their Eyes Were Watching God,
which drew on her Florida upbringing.
Hurston was born in the African American town of Eatonville, Florida, on January ,
probably in , though other sources suggest that she might have been born in .
One of eight children, Hurston wrote of her rich and varied experiences growing up in
her  autobiography Dust Tracks on a Road. At the town’s general store, she recalled
hearing the folk tales of a rich oral culture that would become one of her lifelong interests. A precocious child, Hurston read a wide variety of literature, ranging from adventure stories to Greek and Norse mythology.
When Hurston was , her mother died, and she was forced to live with different
relatives and work at the menial jobs usually available to African American women,
namely as a maid and nanny. She escaped the life of a servant when she was hired as a
wardrobe mistress by an itinerant acting troupe.
Hurston’s subsequent travels landed her first in Baltimore, where she studied at the
Morgan Academy from  to , and then at Howard University in Washington,
D.C., where she began to write stories. She was soon noticed by publisher Charles Johnson, who would introduce Hurston to literary fame when his magazine Opportunity
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published two of her stories, “Drenched in Light” () and “Spunk” (). Thereafter, Hurston became associated with the group of African American writers and
artists in Harlem (a neighborhood above Central Park in New York City), who contributed to the creative outpouring that has been dubbed the Harlem Renaissance.
In New York City, Hurston acquired a scholarship to study at Barnard College (the
sister school to Columbia University) and continued to write, publishing a play titled
Color Stuck in . At Barnard, her scholarly work was noticed by the great Columbia
anthropologist Franz Boas, who invited her to study with him. Boas encouraged Hurston
to return to her native town of Eatonville to study African American folklore as an anthropologist. A wealthy white benefactor (Hurston would attract several in her career)
provided her with the means to travel south and collect folklore. Her efforts later resulted
in two collections of folk tales entitled Mules and Men () and Tell My Horse ().
In the s, Hurston embarked on the richest artistic period of her career when
she began to write novels. Her first novel, Jonah’s Gourd Vine, came out in  and
centered on the life of a Baptist preacher who wrestles with contradictory impulses as
a religious leader and as a free spirit entangled in illicit affairs. Her second novel, Their
Eyes Were Watching God (), drew on her own experiences growing up in Eatonville
and is considered to be her masterpiece. She followed these works with Moses, Man of
the Mountain (), about a slave leader, and Seraph on the Suwanee (), which focused on poor whites of the South.
Criticized by such other prominent African American writers as W. E. B. DuBois,
Richard Wright, and Alain Locke (who was among her teachers at Howard) for not
being overtly critical of racial oppression in her work, Hurston maintained that African
American art would best be served by striving to achieve expression free of the confines of political controversy. On the other hand, Hurston was unflaggingly committed
to presenting and exploring the varied richness of African American folklife, and racial
themes are the marrow of her writings.
Hurston published no more novels after , when she was accused of molesting
a landlady’s son. Though the accusation proved false, the scandal tarnished her reputation and she felt persecuted and humiliated by the African American press. Such hurt,
coupled with her independent streak, led her to espouse conservative politics in the
s; she even opposed the Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education () decision that mandated the desegregation of public schools.
In this final period of her life, Hurston held such varied jobs as reporter, teacher, librarian, and even maid when she found herself in financial trouble. In , she suffered
a debilitating stroke and died on January , . Her grave remained unmarked until
the writer Alice Walker rediscovered it in the s and marked it with an engraving
naming Hurston as “A Genius of the South.” The marking of Hurston’s grave symbolized the revival of interest in her work, as she is now regularly read in college classes
throughout the United States.
justin harmon, et al.
JAMES WELDON JOHNSON (1871–1938)
James Weldon Johnson left his mark in so many areas of African American culture
during the early part of the th century that he is not easily categorized; he was a
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71
songwriter, poet, novelist, scholar, diplomat, and civil rights activist. Although he spent
most of his adult life in New York City, his Florida origins were apparent in much of his
work, which he peppered with the authentic dialogue of black Southerners. In ,
he founded the first African American daily newspaper in the United States, the shortlived Daily American.
Johnson was born in the racially tolerant town of Jacksonville, Florida, on June ,
. His mother was a teacher and musician from Nassau, Bahamas, and his father
worked as a headwaiter in an upscale hotel. His affluent, free-born parents provided
Johnson with a comfortable home and a secure childhood. He learned Spanish from his
father, picking up an appreciation for languages, while Johnson’s mother inspired his
love of poetry and music. After he graduated from Atlanta University in , he took
a position as a teacher at the same elementary school he had attended as a boy. Johnson
studied law during his spare time and in  became the first black person admitted to
the Florida state bar since the Civil War.
Johnson also wrote poetry in his spare time, and when school was out he traveled
to New York City, where he wrote songs with his brother. In , he made the move
permanent, and the Johnson songwriting partnership became famous. Their songs included “Under the Bamboo Tree” and the hopeful “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” which is
sometimes referred to as the “Negro National Anthem.”
By , Johnson had discovered Walt Whitman, whose work made Johnson think
deeply about his use of the black voice in his own poetry. Subsequently, he became
unhappy with the type of writing he was producing, which sometimes presented an
oversimplified, stereotypical picture of rural black society that catered to a white audience. Johnson became involved with other black Republicans, helping to organize a
club in Harlem. He was accepted to the federal government’s consular service in 
and began a career as a diplomat, serving in Venezuela and Nicaragua and working on
his only novel, The Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man, which was published anonymously in . The book, about a light-skinned black man searching for an identity and
a place for himself in a white world, would later be credited with imbuing black literature with a realism and imagery that had not been previously seen.
Realizing that Republicans had no chance of a future under newly elected President Woodrow Wilson, Johnson quit working for the government in . (He would
quit the Republican Party in the early s.) Four years later, the famous civil rights
activist W. E. B. DuBois asked Johnson to help his cause as a field secretary for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). He led investigations into racial conflicts, organized demonstrations, and helped set up new NAACP
branches all over America. By , Johnson was running the entire organization as its
chief executive officer. He served in that capacity until .
Johnson’s years as NAACP chief were his most productive and creative years as a
writer, and he became well known as a poet and social critic. In , he published
his first book of verse, Fifty Years and Other Poems, which was greeted with mixed reviews. Johnson contributed articles to such newspapers and magazines as The New York
Times, Harper’s, and the Jacksonville Times-Union, among others. His articles, which
were generally conservative, maintained a sense of racial pride while discussing the
need for self-reliance and self-education. He lectured on African American literature,
music, and culture at many prestigious colleges, exposing mostly white universities to
the black sensibilities expressed during the Harlem Renaissance of the s. Johnson
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also worked as an editor, and among other projects he organized a well-received collection of black poems called The Book of American Negro Poetry in . Black Manhattan () looks at blacks’ contributions to American culture as well as to the music and
art of New York City.
Johnson resigned from the NAACP in  to chair the creative literature department at Fisk University. In , he was honored with the W. E. B. DuBois Prize
for Negro Literature. Johnson died in an automobile accident on June , , in
Wiscasset, Maine.
CLAUDE MCKAY (1889–1948)
Claude McKay was a leading writer of the Harlem Renaissance and one of a group of
writers that includes Paule Marshall, Edwidge Danticat, and Olaudah Equiano, who
are fully of the African diaspora. McKay was first identified as an associate/protégé of
the British folklorist Walter Jekyll and had his first collections of poetry, Songs of Jamaica and Constab Ballads, published through Jekyll’s patronage in his native Jamaica
in .
McKay was born in Sunny Ville, Jamaica, on September , . During his childhood, McKay was exposed to his elder brother’s free-thinking literature and grew up
without religious indoctrination, despite his family’s participation in the church. McKay
left Jamaica for New York in  and became part of the literary and political activity
known as the Harlem Renaissance. His migration to the United States also put him in
touch with the Euro-American left wing, as well as with various Pan-Africanists of differing political persuasions.
Although known mostly as a poet, McKay was also a novelist, essayist, journalist,
social and political critic, and activist. His writings include Spring in New Hampshire
(), Negroes in America (), Home to Harlem (), Banjo: A Story without Plot
(), Gingertown (), Banana Bottom (), A Long Way from Home (), Harlem: A Negro Metropolis (), and My Green Hills of Jamaica ().
McKay is also known, although to a lesser degree, for his leftist affiliations, such as
his work with the two most powerful left-wing editors in New York—Max Eastman of
The Liberator and the voluble Frank Harris of Pearson’s Magazine. McKay’s left-wing
political works include his early publications in The Workers’ Dreadnought in June .
Three poems, “The Barrier,” “After the Winters,” and “The Little Peoples” were reprinted
from Eastman’s Liberator. “If We Must Die” (which became his most popular poem, recited by Winston Churchill over the wireless during World War II) appeared in September of the same year. McKay’s first article appeared in January , entitled “Socialism
and the Negro,” and his career as journalist, although not placing him as a writer within
the wider context of British literary life, certainly afforded him extensive opportunity to
observe, report on, and understand British political life.
When McKay arrived in England in  he frequented two clubs, the International
Club, and another, situated in a basement in Drury Lane, which were the centers for Africans. McKay was banned from the latter by the manager because of his reference to
her as being “maternal” in her treatment of Africans. McKay subsequently spent most
of his spare time at the International Club, which had been founded by radical Germans
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THE HARLEM RENAISSANCE, 1917–1935
73
in  and was the reputed center for pan-European radical thought. Marx and Engels had spoken there in the s, and it was a popular meeting place for leftists of
the time.
McKay followed all the leaders of the major workers’ groups and wrote features, reports, and book reviews of some of the leading radical writers of the s. McKay not
only published articles under his own name, but he also used pseudonyms, including
Hugh Hope or the initials of his name.
One of the most interesting of McKay’s experiences came with his association with
Sylvia Pankhurst, who he learned later was involved with the politburo of the Russian
Communist Party after . When a member of her organization was arrested, it was
revealed that he was a courier between Pankhurst and Lenin, Zinovyev, and members
of the politboro. McKay himself cleverly escaped being arrested after the publication
of a sensitive document about the navy. McKay had secured the original document on
his person, after the police had thoroughly ransacked Pankhurst’s offices, and was descending from the building when he was questioned by the police. McKay not only circulated within the circles of the English and Europeans, but he also made important
social contacts with Africans from the Caribbean and Africa. He did not function as
a political organizer, either with the socialists or with the Pan-Africanists; that he saw
himself as a socialist is without doubt, but that he felt a strong bond with the suffering and circumstances of Africans was indisputable. With this consciousness, he tried
to expose the cracks in the armor of British imperialism and what he referred to as the
“congenial” nature of British racism. McKay died of heart failure in Chicago, Illinois, on
May , .
amon saba saakana
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EBSCO Publishing : eBook Collection (EBSCOhost) - printed on 11/13/2014 12:57 PM via RANNEY SCHOOL
AN: 348603 ; Thackeray, Frank W., Findling, John E..; What Happened? : An Encyclopedia of Events That
Changed America Forever
Account: cjrlc144