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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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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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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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