How Did The Harlem Renaissance Influence Pop Culture

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The Harlem Renaissance heavily influences today’s pop culture in America, and without this movement, we wouldn’t be able to see some of our favorite artists today. This movement was known as the sudden outburst of creativity among the African-American culture that formed around 1920-1930 in Harlem, New York. Some of these artistic flavors were introduced in the form of jazz, poetry, and acting. The influence of people such as Marcus Garvey, Duke Ellington, and Louis Armstrong gave this movement its heartbeat. But, no other person contributed more to the Harlem Renaissance than Langston Hughes. His poetry, with works such as “Cross” and “The Trumpet Player” clarifies how it was to live as an African-American in a time of racial segregation …show more content…

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. Some people did not like it, including some whites and blacks, but his creativity stood out in a time of …show more content…

He also wasn’t liked because of his political views. He favored communism, or the doctrine in which every single piece of property is owned publicly, and everyone is paid in connection to their needs and abilities. Considering how racial tensions were in the ‘20s and the lack of laws promoting desegregation at the time, you could see why Hughes praised the politics of the Communist Party. In 1953, during the cold war, Hughes was called for his communist views upon the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations that was led by Senator Joseph McCarthy. Before they called him up to testify, the committee read his poem “Democracy”. It was about the ability for everyone to vote is automatically given inside a democracy, and a freedom that the poem focuses on. He testified that he wasn’t a communist but sympathized that his views were truly moral as he wanted equality within the African American community. No one will ever know the influence of his testimony towards the subcommittee, but considering the Civil Rights Act was passed in 1964, there had to be influence towards the