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Langston Hughes: The Harlem Renaissance

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Over the course of history, America has struggled with adversity and soared with prosperity. From the Great Depression to the first man on the moon, the United States has experienced it all. A crucial event in America’s history that does not receive the recognition that it should is the Harlem Renaissance. Prominent from the “Roaring Twenties” until the Great Depression, the Harlem Renaissance was an explosion of African American cultural pride, particularly in the creative arts (Hutchinson 2015). Not only was African American culture reborn, but American culture as a whole (“The Harlem Renaissance” 2015). The Harlem Renaissance is considered the most influential literary movement in African American history (Hutchinson 2015). Through the use …show more content…

Langston Hughes was one of the most prominent figures of the Renaissance. He reflected his roots in African American culture in his poetry using the rhythm of blues and jazz (“The Harlem Renaissance” 2015).Claude McKay wrote poems that raised awareness, such as "The Lynching." He displayed the anger and opposition African Americans felt during World War I (Lawson 2003). Jessie Redmon Fauset, one of the best fiction writers of the era, was an educated woman who hoped to prove blacks’ value to American society. She displayed African Americans as mainstream Americans in her novels (Lawson 2003). She was interested in cultural mainstream Americans in her novels. She was interested in cultural problems like social status and econmonic welfare, but she incorporated race issues in her works as well (Lawson 2003). E. Franklin Frazier and Alain Lock exposed the problems faced by black Americans in an atttempt to induce change, similarly to how journalists and novelists due the Progressive era had done (Lawson …show more content…

African Americans were hit especially hard by the Great Depression because Jim Crow segregation and racial violence was prevalent. African Americans didn’t gain legal equality until the modern civil rights era of the late 1950s and early 1960s (Bodenner 2006). Even though the Harlem Renaissance had essentially ended, Renaissance writers continued producing works. Renaissance writers transitioned to black writers of the civil rights era. The Black Arts Movement of the 1960s looked to avoid any influence from white culture (Bodenner 2006). The movement was not incorporated into mainstream society like the Harlem Renaissance, but it influenced future generations of black writers all the same. Black literature was considered its own genre and black authors appeared on best-seller lists (Bodenner 2006).
The growth of the African American middle class has caused black writers to decreasingly rely on white audiences for support. Black writers have been inrtoduced to the white mainstream through cultural forces like the “Oprah Winfrey Show” (Bodenner 2006). Just as they began the legacy of jazz and blues, African Americans helped create rock and roll, the musical phenomenon of the second half of the 20th century. Soul, R&B, funk, hip hop, and rap music all orginate from African American culture. Hip hop has become one of the U.S.’s foremost culural export (Bodenner

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The cultural impact of the Harlem Renaissance was paramount in creating a collective shift of consciousness in America. This shift was the byproduct of the Great Migration forcing a environment for art, philosophy and religion to proliferate. Furthermore, these driving factors provided an abundance of exposure of African American culture to the rest of America particularly white America. Moreover, this environment was teeming with creativity producing great music, poetry and actors. In addition, the environment also was intellectually driven from philosophers, writers and bloomed progressive sects of religion.

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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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The Harlem Renaissance was a period in American history, which occurred in the 1920s in Harlem, New York. The cultural movement was an opportunity for African Americans to celebrate their heritage through intellectual and artistic works. Langston Hughes, a famous poet, was a product of the Harlem Renaissance. One notable piece of literature by Hughes is “Dream Deferred”. However, the discussion of African American culture isn’t limited to the 1920s.

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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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Roosevelt in the fight against the Great Depression: the Public Works Administration and the Civilian Conservation Corps for employment and economic recovery. For one, the programs had a direct and immediate impact on American society, with the government adamant to ensure its citizens could get employment without the conditions in the economy getting from bad to worse. People's confidence in the government's relief, recovery, and reform features led to the framing of other social safety net programs. These changes, however, were social in nature too, and in the 1920s and 1930s, it was a period of important social changes in the United States, brought by cultural movements and demographic alterations. The Harlem Renaissance was a cultural movement that began in the 1920s and formed an appreciation for African American culture and arts.

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Whenever a group of like-minded people are allowed to congregate, it tends to be that the result of their collective minds leaves the world forever changed. Examples of this widespread of ideas can be found in the renaissance, the age of enlightenment, and most recently, the Harlem Renaissance. This marvellous movement was a time of great appreciation for African-American culture and heritage, which began in the slums of Harlem, New York, around 1920. This specific change in cultural tempo came about as less of a re-birth, and more of a first light for the brilliance of black poets who had been, and to some extent still were being, buried under the immense cover of the white majority in America. Each poet of this time contributed something unique and incredible to the rising movement, starting with a man named Langston Hughes.

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American culture today is extremely diverse, reflecting the creative explosion of African American arts in the 1920s. This expressive transformation of culture was called The Harlem Renaissance, which America could not cast away or ignore. This social, cultural, and artistic outburst impacted the lives of many African Americans like Louis Armstrong and Langston Hughes and their culture with revolutionary art, literature, and music, and this movement made blacks more acceptable to America, as they embraced their own culture and heritage. During the 1920s, the Harlem Renaissance flourished because of the achievements and culture of African Americans’ literary, musical, theatrical, and visual arts.

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The movement challenged the stereotypes and attitudes toward African Americans and inspired a new generation of artists and intellectuals. The legacy of the Harlem Renaissance can be seen in the ongoing struggle for civil rights and equality in current American society. African American culture has continued to evolve, and its expressions are now more diverse than ever before. The Harlem Renaissance serves as a reminder of the resilience and creativity of the African American community in the face of oppression and adversity. Therefore, the legacy of the Harlem Renaissance and African cultural traditions will continue to be significant in American society and

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Although they used this time period to celebrate their individuality and talents, many white Americans disagreed with the ideas and the achievements that were happening during the Harlem Renaissance. People of color were not unfamiliar with obstacles in America but throughout a time which was meant to bring a fresh start and a new sense of pride, “Even the best of the poems of the Harlem Renaissance carried the burden of self-consciousness of oppression” (Huggins 65). Despite their good intentions and positive results black people felt the limitations that were being put on them not only by many whites in society but by the government’s hands as well. The Jim Crow laws were created to segregate white and black people and while this did slow down the progress of African Americans, like any other struggle it did not deter them from

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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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Part 1 As I looked through Drop Me Off in Harlem, I gathered that the Harlem Renaissance was the era where African Americans actually had a reason to take pride and rejoice in their identity for the first time ever. Harlem was where they found something that was distinctively theirs. African-American literature, art, music, and notions were venerated and recognized everywhere in America. It was this era where big names such as Aaron Douglas, Duke Ellington, Evelyn Preer, George Snowden, Claude Mckay, and W.E.B. Dubois came alive. Before this era, African Americans were seen as servile, unqualified, unskillful and only seen as a laborer.

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The shame wasn’t a cause for them to turn away from the love for their culture, it just made the proud of their deep black beautiful roots. The black artists of the Harlem Renaissance put a visual scene to the joy, pain, laughter, tears, and the ugly truth within this endearing culture. The literature of the Harlem Renaissance gave an intellectual opinion in American during in the turn of the 20th century. Writers of the Harlem Renaissance have had a profound impact on the American society today.

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Imagine being somewhere where you are constantly being looked down upon and are constantly being discriminated against. Put yourself in the place of African Americans in both the Harlem Renaissance and Postmodern time periods. African American art, literature, music, dance, and social commentary flourished in Harlem, New York during the 1920s. This time period was known as “The New Negro Movement,” but later became known as the Harlem Renaissance. The postmodern time period was in the 1950s.

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The Harlem Renaissance, also known as the New Negro Movement, is a time period in American history that bred the likes of Langston Hughes, W.E.B Dubois, and Zora Neale Hurston. Despite the name, the Harlem Renaissance is not exclusive to the city of Harlem. The Harlem Renaissance period is an “interdisciplinary cultural movement” (Jones 2008) that unleashed creativity in the African American community and allowed the ingenuity of the community to be shared with the world. The Harlem Renaissance is the beginning of the age of modernism. This artistic movement included creative explosions in the areas of literature, poetry, dance, and music.

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The most influential movement in African American literary history, which contributed the phase of the “New Negro”, is known as The Harlem Renaissance. This movement played a pivotal role in creating a different identity for the black culture (History.com). Emerging in the 1920s, The Harlem Renaissance allowed black writers, artists, photographers, scholars, poets, and musicians to express their talents Part of the foundations of the movement was the Great Migration of African Americans from South to North, drastically expanding their knowledge and socioeconomic opportunities. Certainly the movement was more than literary, for having such a proximate relation to civil rights, the “New Negro” demanded civil and political privileges. Additionally, it had a revitalizing influence for African Americans to develop race pride; giving such a prestige to their work affected African Americans in a manner of desiring to reconnect with their unwanted African heritage.

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