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Harlem Renaissance Research Paper

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Harlem Renaissance
“What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun? Or fester like a sore-- And then run?” (Hughes). These lines from Langston Hughes’s Harlem explain the struggle African Americans faced in finding culture and identity after slavery was abolished. According to [Wikipedia] the Renaissance was the rebirth of social change. Before this time period African Americans had no voice. This is because they were not given the opportunity of self expression. However, after the Emancipation Proclamation, African Americans had new goals which brought about a rebirth of the African American culture. During the era of the Harlem Renaissance, white people were to embrace African Americans culture through art, literature, …show more content…

For instance, Dox Thrash’s art captured the bad events and unsuccessful industry in the south. Charlotte portrays a woman who looks sad and depressed, which is shown by the wears on her face and the bags under her eyes. In the painting, the pointed downward smile shows the sorrowful life experience as a slave. This also shows the emotion and the amount of misery slaves went through at the time. Another example of this time era would be The Freedom Bureau which portrayed the social tension between the two races. The art illustrates two races going against each other but a peacemaker trying to settle the pace against them. The peacemaker symbolized the government's call to action, and showed that the government finally stepped in fighting for equal rights. All of the examples above, provide enough information to state that art was a way African Americans expressed their …show more content…

Walker once said, “Now, I ask you, had you not rather be killed than to be a slave to a tyrant, who takes the life of your mother, wife, and dear little children? Look upon your mother, wife and children, and answer God Almighty; and believe this, that it is no more harm for you to kill a man who is trying to kill you, than it is for you to take a drink of water when thirsty.” (Walker). This quote stated that everyone should be created equal and hoped for an end to racial discrimination. Walker always wanted to put himself in a very dangerous position because he believed that it was the right thing to do. He wished to clarify the hypocritical nature of the whites and wanted to punish them behalf of the oppressed. Langston Hughes was an author who successfully contributed to social change through literature by his poem Let America be America Again. An example is, “Go home and write a page tonight. And let that page come out of you-- Then, it will be true.” This quote showed that African Americans used literature as a way to express their emotion. Also, Sojourner Truth was an influential feminist who fought for equal rights toward African American women. “Those who only can appreciate it who saw her powerful form, her whole-souled, earnest gesture, and listened to her strong and truthful tones.” (Truth) This shows that most people were passionate about what she was talking about and had hope

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210 Words | 1 Pages

The Harlem Renaissance is a term that encompasses an intellectual and literary movement of the 1920s and 1930s. A renowned scholar, Alain Locke, argued that “Negro life is seizing its first chances for group expression and self determination” (1926). Moreover, The Harlem Renaissance refers to the re-birth of African Americans who needed “an affirmation of their dignity and humanity in the face of poverty and racism” (Gates, 1997: 929). In their research, Shukla and Banerji state the the Harlem Renaissance “can be considered as the spring of Afro-American voice” that previously remained unheard and unnoticed (2012). For the first time black musicians and artists came to the fore of attention and started to be praised for their work.

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704 Words | 3 Pages

The Harlem Renaissance was the rebirth of black arts and culture primarily in the north; it was where African Americans expressed themselves through music and other art forms to show that they were free and that they had the right to express their emotions as well as their thoughts. The Harlem Renaissance shaped America and the African American culture as it is today. They got to experience things they never experienced before. Although, this event in history is called the Harlem Renaissance it wasn’t only for Harlem.

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1645 Words | 7 Pages

The Harlem Renaissance was a black literary and art movement that began in Harlem, New York. Migrants from the South came to Harlem with new ideas and a new type of music called Jazz. Harlem welcomed many African Americans who were talented. Writers in the Harlem Renaissance had separated themselves from the isolated white writers which made up the “lost generation” The formation of a new African American cultural identity is what made the Harlem Renaissance and the Lost Generation unique in American culture because it influenced white literacy and it was a sense of freedom for African Americans.

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1176 Words | 5 Pages

The Harlem Renaissance is a time period that is not categorized as common knowledge. Most people don’t know the significance of it and how life changing it was for African Americans. While researching this topic, many reports, essays, journals, articles, and books were discovered that contained a plentiful amount of information proving its powerful influence. For instance, the Harlem Renaissance was a major historical event because African Americans were finally given an outlet to express themselves by creating unity and starting to develop the true African American culture. These accomplishments were especially significant because Blacks were starting to find their voice after they had been silenced.

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971 Words | 4 Pages

These African Americans were forced to settle in segregated housing during a time in history when they thought their voices were not being heard (Brown). But together, they started a movement that changed history. *The Harlem Renaissance changed the culture of America, specifically impacting music and literature for decades

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132 Words | 1 Pages

The Harlem Renaissance was a period of great cultural growth in the black community. It is accepted that it started in 1918 and lasted throughout the 1930s. Though named the ‘Harlem’ Renaissance, it was a country-wide phenomenon of pride and development among black Americans, the likes of which had never existed in such grand scale. Among the varying political actions and movements for equality, a surge of new art appeared: musical, visual, and even theatre. With said surge, many of the most well-known black authors, poets, musicians and actors rose to prevalence including Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, Louis Armstrong, and Eulalie Spence.

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951 Words | 4 Pages

During the period of World War I, around 200,000 Black soldiers experienced impartiality from the nations of Europe, and many of them envisioned being treated with greater respect and a doctrine of egalitarianism, but that didn’t happen. There were an abundance of riots involving race during the Twenties; in the South and in the North. During this time, black nationalism began to grow, and Langston Hughes was at the forefront of one of the most influential movements that gripped America, the Harlem Renaissance. Hughes portrayed the lives of everyday African-Americans with their jazz, dejections, delight, comedy, and regular clashes with racism in his poetry, and his actions in the political landscape.

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Before this most of the african american population had lived in the south. This had an effect on the way that people were viewed they were viewed by many people in the south as a lower class and unworthy of social appreciation. This resulted in many people moving north and starting the great migration which was a main starter of the Harlem Renaissance. According to (poetryfoundation.org) “The origins of the Harlem Renaissance lie in the Great Migration of the early 20th century, when hundreds of thousands of black people migrated from the South into dense urban areas that offered relatively more economic opportunities and cultural capital. It was, in the words of editor, journalist, and critic Alain Locke, “a spiritual coming of age” for African American artists and thinkers, who seized upon their “first chances for group expression and self-determination.”

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579 Words | 3 Pages

The Harlem Renaissance, which occurred throughout the 1910’s and 1920’s, was a big leap for black communities because the African Americans got a chance to use their creativity and culture to become a strong and equal society in America. The Harlem Renaissance was a time for the black communities of America to find their individuality through art, literature, music, and other aspects of their culture. Through the use of this artwork, African Americans were able to voice their feelings and opinions on the situations they were dealt with during the time of the Civil Rights Movement. This is similar to the works of Dr. W.E.B. Du Bois because he voiced his reasoning in the use of literature. Du Bois was a major impact on the Harlem Renaissance

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1026 Words | 5 Pages

Renaissance means rebirth from french, this is a rebirth because it gave a new life for the African Americans. The Harlem Renaissance was sparked because of the terrible conditions that the African-Americans were lived in and worked in mainly the

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875 Words | 4 Pages

Furthermore, his deep affiliation with political events of his time and presence as a vocal advocate for Civil Rights and social justice led him to often address these issues directly in his work. The experiences and stance of Hughes shaped his work in a way that created a brand new point of view that could only be understood if the reader knew about his background. The peculiar way Langston Hughes commits to paper on account of his personal experiences relating to racial prejudice successfully represents the struggles of the African-American community. Hughes depicts that America appears to be unified solely by counting each individual as worthy of recognition through a poem published during his time of figurative imprisonment.

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1545 Words | 7 Pages

With those new opportunities they took to art, literature, and music, and gave themselves a voice to express life beyond the slave oppression. The Harlem Renaissance started a change for African Americans that motivated them to express themselves through their own culture and history. The legacy of the writers/poets, artists, and musicians had a great effect on the African American community by giving hope for better days.

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1077 Words | 5 Pages

The Harlem Renaissance: Not Just the Black Jazz Age New York City, famously known as the city of dreams even before the Alicia Keys song. For the black communities of the 20’s, they found refuge in the back streets of Harlem, New York from the harsh reality of segregated America. Here, famous artists, musicians, and authors started a black pride culture phenomenon called today the Harlem Renaissance. The Harlem Renaissance was a cultural movement of racial pride influenced by history, literature, and the culture of the era.

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1516 Words | 7 Pages

The Harlem Renaissance was a movement that reflected the culture of African Americans in an artistic way during the 1920’s and the 30’s. Many African Americans who participated in this movement showed a different side of the “Negro Life,” and rejected the stereotypes that were forced on themselves. The Harlem Renaissance was full of artists, musicians, and writers who wrote about their thoughts, especially on discrimination towards blacks, such as Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, and Langston Hughes. The Harlem Renaissance was an influential and exciting movement, and influenced others to fight for what they want and believed in. The Harlem Renaissance was the start of the Civil Rights Movement.

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1283 Words | 6 Pages

During the period of Harlem Renaissance, many black artists emerged and took forward the mission of promoting black identity and expressing the black or the Negro thoughts at time. At start, this movement was viewed or was seen as a literary movement which changed with time and became to be known as a national movement with links with international development in arts and culture. Harlem Renaissance is believed to

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