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Harlem Renaissance Research Paper

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The 1920’s, also known as the Roaring 20’s, was a time of cultural rebirth. World War I had ended, jobs sprang up all over the U.S. and people migrated into the cities, and started an urban life. One very impactful movement during this time was the Harlem Renaissance. In Harlem, north of Manhattan, African Americans from the south moved to the north to work in factories (Hall). It was known as “The Great Migration” (Brown). 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 …show more content…

African Americans who moved to Harlem were astounded and inspired by the amount of people moving in to the city. Writer Langston Hughes once said, “Harlem was like a great magnet for the Negro intellectual…they began writing with a bold new voice about what it meant to be a black American,” (Brown). Hughes, the most famous poet of this time period, wrote to inspire the African Americans. His poems attracted many African Americans, but it also got the attention of publishers, and eventually all Americans, regardless of race began reading them too (“Harlem …show more content…

With the financial crisis, the Harlem Renaissance period declined (Stevenson). People couldn’t give money to help the artists and many weren’t interested in buying the books or going to listen to the music. With all of their own financial problems, people lost interest in promoting the African American artists. Even though the impact of this period could not be seen immediately, it did have an effect on the years to come. What it did establish was “Black Pride” (Stevenson). This pride inspired authors, such as James Baldwin, in the years to come to write more about the African American experience. This period in the 20’s also inspired famous activist Martin Luther King to speak to America about needed change in society, a change that took decade to

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This paper is all about how the Renaissance shaped African American culture. In this paper you will read about famous black people of that time, special events that occurred and more. The 1920’s period was known as the Harlem Renaissance. This was a time where black people and white people discovered the uniqueness of art, culture, society. From 1918 to the mid 1930s talent began to expand with the new culture of the blacks in the Harlem community.

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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 such a significant moment for African Americans in particular and also for Americans in general, because it allowed them to express themselves through their own unique culture. For example, the text remarks, “The “New Negro” was a way contemporary writers, critics, social activists, and intellectuals used to define an African American population less concerned with the artistic standards of white and European culture, and more interested in self-expression and a distinctive African American culture” (Paragraph 3). In addition, American culture changed unquestionably as a result of the Harlem Renaissance due to political upheaval, economic transformation, and a huge increase in diversity. One reason for cultural change

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It was a period of expression in which they took pride in their culture, this sense of group identity formed a basis for later progress for blacks in the United States. The Harlem Renaissance took down previous racial stereotypes, as well as exemplified that African Americans had much to offer and contributed greatly to the creation of American culture. B) James Weldon Johnson’s excerpt argued that African Americans during the Harlem Renaissance were establishing themselves as active and important forces in society whom were also accomplishing great artistic achievements. Langston Hughes, a leading African American poet of the Harlem Renaissance, wrote literature about the pain and pride

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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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The Harlem Renaissance was the explosion of African-American culture in the borough of Harlem, New York in the 1920s. After World World I, many African-Americans moved to the northern United States to seek factory jobs and to escape the Jim Crow laws of the South. During this diaspora, predominantly African-American communities began to emerge in the Northeast and Midwest, with the most well-known being Harlem. Harlem became known as the mecca of black culture with notable musicians, artists, and writers, such as Langston Hughes and Bessie Smith, calling the city home. This rebirth of African-American culture also created a platform for political and social change.

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During the 1920s through mid-1930s, the Harlem Renaissance was a literary, artistic, and intellectual movement that began a new black cultural identity. Harlem, New York, became the center of a spiritual coming of age, which Alain Locke’s explained as the “New Negro Movement”, and transformed social disillusionment to race pride. The Great Migration is a term used for the movement of African Americans in America from the South to the North and Midwest. Between 1910 and 1930, in the first Great Migration, around 1.6 million migrants moved from institutionalized racism in the South to seek a better life in the booming northern economy. Alain Locke was one of the very important leaders of this movement and the Harlem Renaissance.

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The Harlem Renaissance was a significant mark in history for African American culture in music. The start of the Renaissance was not an easy one. In the 1800s, Harlem was primarily an “upper class” white neighborhood, but in the early 1900s, middle class black families from another neighborhood moved in. Consequently, the white people attempted to push them away, but failing to succeed in that, they left the residence.

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The Harlem Renaissance For African Americans during the early 1900’s was a scary place. . People were filled with racism and hate towards those who are black. Ever thought of how much power a group of people have if they all unite for a similar purpose? The Harlem Renaissance shows exactly that.

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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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African Americans lived in a world of racial injustices and cultural restrictions until the Harlem Renaissance. The Harlem Renaissance was a time where there is an African American literary and art movement in the uptown Manhattan neighborhood. It is the turning point in African American culture, as well as their place in America. The African Americans were starting to become equal in American society. While the Renaissance built on earlier traditions of African American culture, it was greatly affected by the trends of the Europeans and white Americans.

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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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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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Racism is a prominent issue or a serious problem in the American society since the beginning and the Americans are still struggling to eradicate this problem from their land. American soil has witnessed civil rights movements concerning this issue in the past. However in 1920, a movement got initiated to promote black identity known as Harlem Renaissance. It was also a fine arts movement that led to an increase in black confidence, literacy rate, and black culture. Writers wrote about their roots and the current society.

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If they before were disregarded, in the 1920s their works were widespread. Harlem Renaissance has changed not only cultural but social and political position of African-Americans in American society. The mass migration to the North changed the image of the African-American person, he was not an ignorant and illiterate peasant anymore, he turned into a smart and educated representative of the Middle class. Thanks to this changes, African-Americans became the part of the American and then the world cultural and intellectual elite.

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