The Harlem Renaissance refers to a time period that spanned the 1920s
and early 1930s when African American artists and their work flourished. Though largely considered a literary movement, the Harlem
Renaissance actually included philosophers, intellectuals, photographers,
musicians, and other performance artists as well as those involved in the
visual arts. During its heyday, the movement was referred to as the New
Negro Movement. The alternate name was eventually given because the
African American migration to northern cities in the early 1920s
brought many blacks to Harlem, or upper Manhattan, New York. As a
result, the two square miles between 114th and 156th Streets of Harlem became known throughout the world as a cultural metropolis.
For white America, the Harlem Renaissance
provided the gateway into an unfamiliar culture
that was a major ingredient of the country’s
“melting pot” (society of many and various cultures and ethnicities). The movement introduced
millions of Americans to literature, music, and
art that had never before been seen, much less
understood. In limited scope, the era helped
erase some of the stereotypes assigned to the
African American community. White Americans
were able to recognize the talent, ability, and giftedness of the Harlem Renaissance’s key figures,
who in turn stepped forward to represent an entire race.
The movement was arguably more important to African Americans in that it allowed
them to claim their heritage and develop their
cultural and ethnic identity without feeling the
need to hide who they were. For the first time in
American history, African Americans were being
celebrated for their contributions to society.
Culture and politics entwine
What sets the Harlem Renaissance apart from other cultural movements
throughout American history is the fact that at the same time, major political changes were taking place.
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
(NAACP) was established in 1909, and it remained in the forefront of the
civil rights struggle. Marcus Garvey (1887–1940) added to the political
mix when he began advocating for African colonization and encouraged all
African Americans to unite and form their own nation and government.
Garvey’s politics were controversial, yet the organization he founded in
1914, the Universal Negro Improvement Association, grew to include four
million members by 1920. Black nationalism (strong allegiance to and
identification with the African American culture, to the exclusion of all
other races) was a major influence on the Harlem Renaissance. Given the tumultuous state of politics, much of the art—particularly
the literature—generated throughout the Harlem Renaissance was political in nature. Other participants used their art in an attempt to correct
unflattering or distorted ideas of their race and heritage. Garvey himself
publicly criticized those African Americans who he felt exploited (used
at their own expense) their intelligence and art by giving in to the demands of white audiences. In his eyes, these people betrayed their roots
and identity in exchange for fame.
Key figures in the Renaissance
There are many influential figures from the Harlem Renaissance.
Considered by many historians and experts to be the inspiration for the
Harlem Renaissance, W. E. B. Du Bois (1868–1963) secured a seat for
himself at the forefront of early twentieth-century philosophical
thought. The African American community embraced Du Bois as its intellectual leader, and as editor-in-chief for twenty-five years of the
NAACPs journal the Crisis, he single-handedly was responsible for publishing some of the movement’ most gifted and respected writers. Among
them were poet Langston Hughes (1902–1967) and writer/philosopher
Jean Toomer (1894–1967). Both men wrote of their experiences as
African Americans in a white society. Du Bois himself was a talented
writer, though his philosophy known as the Talented Tenth made him a
somewhat controversial figure. According to his theory, the Negro race
would be saved only by its exceptional men, who would pull the entire
race into equality with whites. This small, elite group of literary and intellectual geniuses, he believed, had to be groomed and supported by the
less-intelligent masses.
Other key authors of the Harlem Renaissance included Countee
Cullen (1903–1946), Claude McKay (1890–1948), Alain Locke (1886–
1954), Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960), and James Weldon Johnson
(1871–1938).
Beyond the writers
Blues and jazz were the musical genres of the Harlem Renaissance, and
both had their roots in the black South. Although many African
American musicians had been performing for years in small venues, they
found themselves suddenly famous after the founding of Okeh’s Original
Race Records label in 1921. Popular performers included Bessie Smith (c. 1894–1937), Ma Rainey (1886–1939), and Mamie Smith (1883–
1946). These women used their cultural experiences to infuse meaning
into songs. The blues tunes were all about loss of love, personal disaster,
and the hardships of life in general.
Jazz followed closely on the heels of the blues, and the first big band
(jazz orchestra) was organized in New York City in the early 1920s. The
first great jazz soloist was Louis Armstrong (1901–1971), who blew his
trumpet first for a smaller band in Chicago, Illinois, and then for
Fletcher Henderson’s (1898–1952) big band in New York in 1924.
Other famous jazz musicians included Cab Calloway (1907–1994) and
Duke Ellington (1899–1974).
There were fewer visual artists in the Harlem Renaissance, and even
those who seized the opportunity for growth remain less well known.
James Van Der Zee (1886–1983) was a Harlem photographer who had
moved from Massachusetts in 1905. He was a bold artist and one of the
first photographers to consider photography as a form of art. By the
1920s, he had built a successful portrait photography business. It is his work that gives the modern American a glimpse into the African
American culture of the Harlem Renaissance.
Sculpture and painting were other artistic mediums that African
American artists embraced. Meta Warrick Fuller (1877–1968) became
famous for her 1914 sculpture Ethiopia Awakening. The piece depicts an
African American woman wrapped like a mummy from the waist down,
but whose upper torso is living and reaching upward. On her head she
wears an Egyptian queen’s headdress. The sculpture became a nationalist
symbol for African Americans. This and other similar artistic works that
reflected African heritage and identity played into white America’s sudden interest in black folklore.
Archibald Motley (1891–1981) was an artist who favored oil paints
as his medium. Unlike most other important figures of the Harlem
Renaissance, he never actually lived in Harlem but claimed Chicago for
his home. Motley’s paintings documented the African American urban
experience, particularly the club scene and nightlife as influenced by the
Roaring Twenties, or Jazz Age (a period in U.S. history between World
War I and the Great Depression when new forms of social, cultural, and
artistic expression were emerging).
Other significant contributions were made in the field of visual arts
by painter Aaron Douglas (1898–1979), sculptor Sargent Claude
Johnson (1887–1967), and painter Palmer Hayden (1890–1973).
In all art forms, the Harlem Renaissance was a period of development for African American artists. They used their art to express who
and what they were as well as were not, where they came from, and
where they were going.