Harlem Renaissance
The Harlem Renaissance Period (1919-1940) included many outstanding
features and
writers which made for a wonderful cache of literary works by
African American
writers. There was an unprecidented variety and scope of
publications by African
Americans which brought about a new sense of
purpose, confidence, and
achievement unusual to many black artists due to
thier troubled history. This
led to thier irresistable impulse to create
boldly expressive art of high
quality. The 1920's saw the first significant
amount of publishing of works by
black artists since the turn of the century.
Migration to the north seemed a
necessity due to the more and more
intolerable hiring conditions for blacks in
the south. Industrial expansion
and jobs left open by whites now serving in WWI
saw many blacks moving into
the seriously overbuilt Harlem which was origionally
built for middle-class
and upper-middle-class whites. It was soon labled the
"Negro capital of the
world" by James Weldon Johnson, a prominent
writer and civil rights leader of
the times, and thus soon became the
headquarters of such powerful groups as
the NAACP, the National Urban League,
and Marcus Garvey's Universal Negro
Improvement Association. During this period
of migration, several magazines
and newspapers strived toward a kind of
"coming of age" for the black
culture. The early 1920's also saw a
breakthrough for African Americans on
the stage by finally having plays that
showed the complex humanity of blacks.
James Weldon Johnson is much quoted in
relation to the uprising of the negro
culture. He wrote that what the new black
artists needed to do was to find "a
form expressing the imagery, the
idioms, the peculiar turns of thought, and
the distinctive humor and
pathos" of the African American culture. There were
many writers that
dominated the movement including Arna Bontemps, Wallace
Thurman, Zora Neale
Hurston, Rudolph Fisher, Gwendolyn Bennett, Helene
Johnson, her cousin Dorothy
West. Also much noted were Countee Cullen,
who grew up in the city, and Langston
Hughes, who grew up in Kansas.
Hughes came to the city on the pretext of going
to school, but swore that he
really came for Harlem itself. Hughes tended to be
very blunt and
straight-forward in his works, but one example, Dreams, shows an
uncommonly
tender side: Hold fast to dreams For if dreams die Life is a
broken-winged
bird That cannot fly. Hold fast to dreams For when dreams go Life
is a barren
field Frozen with snow. Another publication which helped to define
the
emerging spirit of the movement was The New Negro, a 1925 anthology edited
by
Howard University professor Alain Locke. It combined stories, poems,
essays,
and artwork by writers old and young, white and black, and defined
the spirit of
the Harlem Renaissance with uncomparable clarity and flair.
Many black writers
during the Harlem renaissance were at the mercy of white
patrons. Two of the
most noted patrons were Carl Van Vechten and Charlotte
Osgood Mason. Numerous
publishers and editors also played a quieter but still
effective role in
breaking down the barriers between black writers and the
major means of
publication in the United States. Occupational and
generational tensions became
a significant part of the movement. Hughes once
observed rather wryly that
almost all of the masses of blacks didn't even
realize that the Harlem
Renaissance was going on around them. The essence
of the renaissance to most of
the younger artists was freedom -- freedom to
create origional, personal
expressions of art, without regard to politics.
There was much growth and change
throughout the 1920's which led to a
decisive shift, around 1928, from poetry to
fiction among the field of
African American writers. After the crash of Wall
Street in 1929, the
Great Depression of the early 30's was the movement toward
the end of the
Harlem Renaissance which had depended on the prosperity of the
publishing
industry, theater, and art world. In looking back on the
Harlem
Renaissance of the 20's and 30's, there were so many contributing
factors that
characterized this period of time as the true renaissance that
it was for
African Americans in the United States. We should all rejoice
in the amazing
work that was created during that time in our history.