The Harlem Renaissance, or the New Negro Movement as it was known at the time, was an intellectual, artistic, and social outpouring that celebrated black culture with themes of what it meant to be black in America. This movement lasted from the 1920s through the 1930s and included artists and intellectuals such as Langston Hughes, W.E.B. DuBois, and Duke Ellington. The Harlem Renaissance went beyond art, literature, and music, there were also political, social, and economic aspects as African-Americans questioned how the United States viewed them and how they viewed themselves. The New Negro and the rise of Harlem came about at a time when African-Americans began to urbanize and form a unique urban culture. These African-Americans defined themselves on their own terms, were proud to be both of African descent and American citizens, and were not afraid to push back against racism.
After WWI more than one million African-Americans moved from the South to Northern cities beginning in 1915 in what became known as the Great Migration. There were several push and pull factors that contributed to the Great Migration. Blacks sought to escape poverty, Jim Crow, and racism as a new KKK formed. Northern cities attracted a new generation of black men because of enfranchisement, jobs created by industrialization and WWI, and media outlets such as The Crisis. These newspapers and magazines promised economic prosperity and more freedom, both politically and socially. The Harlem