Harlem Renaissance Research Paper

A great deluge of voices were brewing on the horizon. The voices of African Americans, protesting long years of struggle, voices that were tired of being oppressed and cast aside as irrelevant. Voices that were about to be unleashed on the masses. A new identity was to be born.

The Harlem Renaissance is regarded by many scholars and early pioneers of African American studies as a pivotal moment in 20th-century Black history. Throughout the 1920s spanning towards the late 1930s, the Harlem Renaissance produced an explosion of African American literature, art, and music. New collaborations between distinguished African American artists blossomed among the denizens of the Harlem community. Musicians such as Louis Armstrong and Billie Holiday help

Musicians like Cab Callaway and Duke Ellington were highly sought after because of their musical prowess. Their ability to draw crowds of various races, and social classes from all over the United States through the vast influence of their music was considered at the time, a social triumph in terms of racial, and gender equality. African Americans however, originally did not believe that white Americans had grown an interest in the music that black composers, and vocalists would produce. They believed that their musical forms would only attract people of their own race, and white people would continue to shun them, or try to dissuade them from establishing their own identity as a race. However, Caucasian groups of differing social standards would travel all over from New York to listen to black musicians in Harlem. Certain individuals would even pay a pretty penny to listen to them perform in various night clubs, coined Cotton Clubs by the African American populace of Harlem. In essence, the musical movement of the Renaissance helped further inspire other African Americans, to renew and revitalize the idea of the New Negro (Locke 8). While describing the concept of the aforementioned, Locke strongly considered the introduction of new colored artists, alongside their music, as one of the many catalysts that brought forth new ideals pertaining to the Renaissance. Ideals that helped

The Renaissance was also well-known for the many literary accomplishments that grew in popularity during the time. The literary scene was viewed as an important catalyst that contributed to redefining an entire nation of African Americans to an astounding degree. Langston Hughes was often regarded as one of the foremost men, behind the literary scene during the Renaissance. Hughes was an accredited black poet, and was well-endowed with his literary talents. In his poem entitled "A Dream Deferred " Hughes remarked upon the difficulties that the African American community faced, when trying to establish a future for themselves, or for aspiring to achieve great things in life. Hughes mentioned that it was impossible for African Americans to dream big, due to the overwhelming amount of oppression and racial violence that they were subject to on a recurring basis during the Jim crow era, and the years leading up to the Harlem Renaissance. Furthermore, Hughes claimed that if the dreams of an individual were deferred a numerous amount of times, then those deferred dreams will end up wilting away, and eventually exploding, before disappearing from that person's consciousness indefinitely. (Berman, "Analysis of A Dream Deferred"