Arna Bontemps A Black Man Talks Of Reaping

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The Harlem Renaissance was a period from the 1920’s-1930’s in which African American culture underwent a significant change, especially around the Northern New York Suburb of Harlem. African Americans had been migrating to the North during the great migration due to racist Jim Crow Laws in the South that made life much harder on African Americans. The Harlem Renaissance was important as it changed African American culture into being much more progressive and demanding of change, laying the bedrock to the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960’s. One notable group within the Renaissance was writers. Magazines such as Crisis were commonly read weekly by African Americans across the country. Without writers, the renaissance would not have been as widespread. The most significant contributor was Arna Bontemps, a poet and writer from Louisiana. During the Harlem Renaissance Era, Arna Bontemps’s poetry uniquely illustrated a tone of bitterness when reflecting on the African American experience. Arna Bontemps was one of many famous writers during this era. Born October 13th, 1902, Bontemps lived in Louisiana before moving to Los Angeles. Bontemps grew up in a strict religious household with …show more content…

Bontemps poem “A Black Man Talks of Reaping” was one of the first poems to give an insight of African Americans' bitterness to the racial policies that they had suffered under in the south. Bontemps poem “God Gave to Men” used religion and irony to show the bitter discontent African Americans felt about their circumstances and struggling relationship with God. With the African American community changing radically during the Harlem Renaissance, it is important to remember the critical role poets played in publishing poetry that reflected the change of the