An Introduction to the History of the Harlem Renaissance Poets

Thesis Statement: The Harlem Renaissance was a giant step in the development of African American cultural and social history; also known as the New Negro Movement brought forward. An outburst of African American literature, music, entertainment and art. But to truly understand what the Harlem Renaissance is then you must look also at Harlem during the period.

The 1920s and 30s. What a place, what a time WHAT AN IDEA. It seemed to embody (to coin a phrase from Dickens that I heard my uncle say) "the best of times". When blues was hot and jazz was a growing stay in America's culture. When speakeasies were filled with both blacks and whites dancing to the 'rhythms of life' set out by the saxophone, trumpet, and drums. When the "New Negro" was setting his mark in politics, art, literature, music, science, the social sciences. and every aspect of American life into which he could win his way.

When the industrial North seemed to call forth African Americans out of the agrarian South. And when the African Americans responded to the call in droves. Fleeing the violence and racism of the KKK and lynch law and the abject poverty of share-cropping; when it seemed as if the urban North, in cities like New York, Chicago, and Detroit, was a place where the American Negro could finally find respite from racial prejudice, could finally hold a decent job with decent pay, could finally become an unharassed property owner, and could finally go out dancing Saturday night without fear of having men in white sheets shatter his fun.

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BUT, if it was "the best of times," it was also "the worst of times:" though blacks and whites joined on the dance floors at night and shared tables at the newest blues and jazz clubs, racist policies and sentiments still separated Americans in all aspects of life; and, though whites went to the hot spots of Negro life, it was often out of curiosity they wanted to watch blacks in order to see their "primitive" character and inferior mode of thinking, living, being. Though the African American was making headway in areas formerly denied him such as the arts, literature, sciences, etc., he often did so by repudiating the mores, manners, and lifestyles of the poorer classes of blacks.

As a result, tensions arose between the middle class and poorer blacks the former group thought the latter was holding back the race by remaining "common" or (as I heard one of Mr. Nevett's students say Mr. Nevett said) "niggerish" while the latter group thought the former was just trying to erase their blackness by "acting white." And, though blacks could often find good jobs and good pay, most were forced to become domestics or factory workers with little chance for advancement. The city life that had promised so much did not deliver.

Harlem was the center of urban black life. If you wanted to write, you went to Harlem. If you wanted to dance, you went to Harlem. If you wanted to effect social change, you went to Harlem. If you wanted to compose music, you went to Harlem. If you wanted the best chance at changing your circumstances and you were black, you went to Harlem. It was considered the heart of the Renaissance in African American letters, hence the name The Harlem Renaissance.

It was also considered the heart of African American life, hence the designation of Harlem as Home in most black literature of the time. Harlem stands, then, not only as a designation of a geographical area, but also as a symbol for the best and worst qualities of African American life during the early twentieth century. If you want to know anything about that time, then, you must first start with Harlem.

The term Harlem Renaissance refers to an artistic, cultural, and social burgeoning of writing about race and the African American's place in American life during the early 1920s and 1930s. It's hard to put an exact date on this period because what happened during this time in terms of social criticism, protest, and political advancements as well as in terms of the growing literati was a long time in developing. Many critics (including myself since I wrote my thesis on this subject) date the beginning of the Harlem Renaissance with the publication of Jean Toomer's novel Cane (1923).

This novel investigates the lower-class life of the African American, who in many ways is still connected spiritually and psychologically to slavery, as well as the life of the urbanized "New Negro," who loses sight of his spiritual heritage because he is too intent on pursuing material things. Toomer's novel was one of the first to treat the subject of the African American life with dignity, respect, and realism part of the aesthetic Harlem Renaissance writers ascribed to in writing, poets in poetry, artist in art.

My report will give many examples of poems, art, and pictures of the Harlem Renaissance. I've even included a chronology ordered time-line of important events, and publications, of the Harlem Renaissance, for Mr. Lyons history class.

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