Map of Harlem – 1920’s

• In the early 1920s, African American artists, writers, musicians, and performers were part of a great cultural movement known as the Harlem Renaissance.

• The huge migration to the North after World War I brought African Americans of all ages and walks of life to the thriving New York City neighborhood called Harlem.

• Doctors, singers, students, musicians, shopkeepers, painters, and writers, congregated, forming a vibrant mecca of cultural affirmation and inspiration.

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In the 1920’s, large numbers of African American musicians, artists , and writers settled in Harlem. This period of time became known as the Harlem Renaissance. During the Harlem Renaissance young black artists celebrated their African and American heritage.

Duke Ellington and his orchestra

W.E.B. Du Bois was a famous writer of the Harlem Renaissance

THE HARLEM RENAISSANCEGreat Migration saw

hundreds of thousands of African Americans move north to big cities

1920: 5 million of the

nation’s 12 million blacks (over 40%) lived in cities

Migration of the Negro by Jacob Lawrence

Demographical Changes• Demographics:

statistics that describe a population.

• Migration North– African Americans

moving north at rapid pace.

• Why?– Jim Crow laws

– New job opportunities in north

– 1860 – 93% in south

– 1930 – 80% in south

• Struggles:– Faced hatred from

whites– Forced low wages

African Americans Move North

• 1865: 93% of African Americans lived in the South.

• 1930: 80%• BUT

– Jobs weren’t much better in the North

– Racial hatred in North– Women often worked as

low-paid domestics.

HARLEM, NEW YORK

Harlem, NY became the largest black urban community

Harlem suffered from overcrowding, unemployment and poverty

Home to literary and artistic revival known as the Harlem Renaissance

LANGSTON HUGHES

Missouri-born Langston Hughes was the movement’s best known poet

Many of his poems described the difficult lives of working-class blacks “Thank you Ma’am”

Some of his poems were put to music, especially jazz and blues

Zora Neale Hurston1891-1960

American writer

Zora Neale Hurston was remarkable in that she was the most widely published

black woman of her day. She authored more than fifty

articles and short stories as well as four novels, two books on folklore, an autobiography, and some plays. At the height of her success she was known as the “Queen of the Harlem “Queen of the Harlem

Renaissance.”Renaissance.”

In 1925, at the height of the jazz era in Paris, the

sensational cast of musicians and dancers

from Harlem, assembled as La Revue Negre,

exploded on the stage of the Theatre des Champs

Elysees. Its talented young star, Josephine

Baker (1906-1975), captivated audiences with a wild new dance called

the Charleston.

LOUIS ARMSTRONG

Jazz was born in the early 20th century

In 1922, a young trumpet player named Louis Armstrong joined the Creole Jazz Band.

Armstrong is considered the most important and influential musician in the history of jazz

EDWARD KENNEDY “DUKE” ELLINGTON

In the late 1920s, Duke Ellington, a jazz pianist and composer, led his ten-piece orchestra at the famous Cotton Club. Band: “The

Washingtonians”

Ellington won renown as one of America’s greatest composers.

BESSIE SMITH

Bessie Smith, blues singer, was perhaps the most outstanding vocalist of the decade

She achieved enormous popularity and by 1927 she became the highest- paid black artist in the world

William H. Johnson Street-life Harlem

Johnson arrived inHarlem when the

Renaissance was in the making. While

there he created several paintings that dealt with

political and social Harlem. Chain

Gang is one example.

William H. Johnson1901-1970

Chain Gang. 1939

William H. JohnsonSwing Low, Sweet Chariot

1939

Johnson always showed great

devotion to painting themes that celebrated

Black Christianity. This painting is an example

of one based on a literal interpretation of a spiritual occasion.

Jazz Clubs

• Artie Shaw – First to use black musicians for white audiences.

• Benny Goodman – First to take jazz to white America.– SWING– First racial mixed

band.

Jazz Clubs and Dance Halls

• To hear the “real” jazz – NYC and the neighborhood of Harlem.– 500 jazz clubs– Cotton Club the most

famous– BUT

• Most white Americans did not want to hear jazz.

AFRICAN AMERICAN GOALS

Founded in 1909, the NAACP urged African Americans to protest racial violence

W.E.B Dubois, a founding member, led a march of 10,000 black men in NY to protest violence

MARCUS GARVEY - UNIA Marcus Garvey believed that

African Americans should build a separate society (Africa)

In 1914, Garvey founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association

Garvey claimed a million members by the mid-1920s Powerful legacy of black pride,

economic independence and Pan-Africanism Garvey represented a more

radical approach

W.E.B. Dubois

• Didn’t think the answer was separation of the races.

• Also didn’t approve of Garvey’s business practices.