The Harlem Renaissance

(c. 1918-37)

Definition

• “Blossoming” of African American culture, especially the creative arts

• Most influential movement in African American literary history

• Sought to identify “the Negro” apart from white stereotypes that had influenced black people’s relationship to their heritage and each other (e.g. Minstrel shows & possibly Huck Finn)

• Laid the groundwork for all subsequent African American literature (“Harlem Renaissance”)

Background

• Precipitated by northward movement of blacks into urban spaces

• Aided by higher rates of literacy, creation of national organizations, new socioeconomic opportunity, growing race pride

• Ushered in the Civil Rights movement in the 1940s and 1950s (“Harlem Renaissance”)

Harlem

• The city of Harlem was the symbolic capitol of the movement

• Included influences from many sources: primarily in the US and the Carribbean

• Harlem made “New Negroes” visible and provided publishing opportunities

• The city was a catalyst for creative expression & drew blacks from all over the US (“Harlem Renaissance”)

Three Important Contributors

Langston Hughes

• “Harlem”• “As I Grew Older”• Langston Hughes

Countee Cullen

• “Yet I Do Marvel”

Zora Neale Hurston

• Their Eyes Were Watching God

Works CitedCovarrubias, Miguel: dust jacket for Langston Hughes’s “The Weary Blues. Photograph. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Web. 18 Nov. 2013. <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/media/72217/Dust-jacket-designed-by-the-Mexican-illustrator-and-writer-Miguel>.

Cullen, Countee. Photograph. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Web. 18 Nov. 2013. <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/media/15616/Countee-Cullen-pastel-by-Winold-Reiss-1925>.

"Harlem Renaissance." Encyclopaedia Britannica. Encyclopaedia Britannica Online Academic Edition. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2013. Web. 18 Nov. 2013. <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/255397/Harlem-Renaissance>.

Hurston, Zora Neale. Photograph. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Web. 18 Nov. 2013. <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/media/73515/First-edition-dust-jacket-of-Zora-Neale-Hurstons-Their-Eyes>.