HARLEM RENAISSANCE

1919-1948

LOCATION

Harlem is a subdivision of New York City located in northern Manhattan bordering on the Harlem and the East river. It was Dutch settlement of Nieuw Harlem established by Peter Stuyvesant in 1658.

History Of This Period

With the dream of making a better life for themselves, African Americans during 1914-1918 migrated North from the rural South. Harlem was a popular place to settle. As a result of this, Harlem became an sophisticated artistic and literary center. "In his magazine Crisis, W.E.B. Dubois urged racial pride among African Americans, and writers, many living in Harlem, began producing fine original works about African American life. Their work constituted a fresh, new subject that attracted white readers and publishers."

Time Span 1919-1940s /AChronology Of Important Events

This site dipicts the sequence of events during this period.

AFRICAN AMERICAN WRITERS AND POETS:

James Langston Hughes 1902-1967 (Writer) HLB

Homes

reared by his grandmother in Lawrance, Kansas
inspired by grandmother to have a devotion to the cause of social justice
father migrated to Mexico
mother often away
bought a home in Harlem in 1947

Hobbies

read and wrote a lot because of loneliness
published his first poem while in high school

Education

1921 Columbia University (one year)

Career

his verse appeared regularly in Crisis (NAACP) and Opportunity (National Urban League)
deliveryman/messman on ships to Africa and Europe
busboy/dishwasher
poet/playwright/novelist/journalist
a pioneer in the fusion of traditional verse with black artistic forms (blues and jazz)

WORKS

1920-1930's leader in the Harlem Renaissance

Verse Collections
1926 The Weary Blues
1927 Fine Clothes to the Jew
1942 Shakespeare in Harlem

Novel
1930 Not Without Laughter

Short Story
1934 The Ways of White Folk (because of the Depression)

Essays, Plays, Magazines and News Papers
1930's radical verse and essays in (New Masses and International Literature Magazines)
1930's Mulatto (most famous Play)
1932-1933 a year in Soviet Union
1940 The Big Sea (Autobiography)
1940's Chicago Defender (newspaper) this column attacked segregation
1940's Jesse B. Semple or "Simple" a comic strip but incisive black urban Every man that ran for twenty years
1956 I Wonder As I Wander (another volume of autobiography)

Lyricist
1947 Broadway opera (Street Scene) with Kurt Weill and Elmer Rice
(several operas libretti)

Poems
1951 Montage of a Dream Deferred

Other Works- a dozen children books, several opera libretti, four books translated from French and Spanish, two collections of stories, another novel, a history of the NAACP. "Considered to be the most widely recognized representative of African American writers and perhaps the most original of black poets.

Alain Leroy Locke 1886-1954 (Writer) Jennifer

Locke's view: "Each culture group has its own identity and it is entitled to protect and promote it."

Life

Locke was born in Philadelphia on September 13, 1886.

Education

Central High School
1904- Harvard University
1907-1910- Hertford College
1907-1910- Oxford University
1910-1911- University of Berlin
1918- Harvard University (Ph. D)

Career

1912- Taught at Howard University for 41 years.
1953- Locke retired.
Founder of Gamma Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa at Howard University.
Architect of the New Negro Movement and the Harlem Renaissance.

Works

The New Negro
The Negro in Art and When People Meet: A Study in Race and Cultural Contacts

AFRICAN AMERICAN ART AND MUSICIANS

This site will give you information on musicians and art of the Harlem Renaissance.

Jacob Lawrence (1917- ) Artist

Born in Atlantic City, New Jersey on September 7, 1917.
His parents were part of the Great Migration of Black Americans (1916-1930). One million people left the rural South for the Urban north during this period.
Moved with his family to Easton, Pennsylvania.
Parents separate, moves with mother to Philadelphia.
In 1927, mother moves to New York and places Lawrence and his siblings in foster homes.
In 1930, Lawrence, age 13 and his brother and sister move to Harlem to live with their mother. This period was the Depression, and people had difficulty surviving. Lawrence worked to help support his family.
Takes art classes with Charles Alston at an after-school arts and crafts program. By fifteen, he decides to be a painter.
In 1938, received a WPA Federal Writer's Project (later Federal Workers' Project) assignment. This period was known as the Harlem Renaissance because WPA trained artists, musicians, writers, and other creative artists.
In 1940, Lawrence received a fellowship from the Rosenwald Fund and he started his Migration Series, sixty panels in all.
In 1941 at the age of twenty-four, he became the first African American Artist included in the permanent collection of The Museum of Modern Art.
1940's-1960's lived in New York City.
At age forty-six, he begins printmaking.
In 1964, Lawrence visits Africa and starts his Nigerian Series (1964-1965).
In 1971, relocates to Seattle to teach at the University of Washington.
In 1983, retires as professor emeritus from the University of Washington.

Lawrence says that, "My paintings express my life and experience." Lawrence married painter Gwendolyn Knight in 1941. After retiring in 1983, Lawrence continues to create major works and remains one of the few African-Americans to win recognition as a major American artist. "Lawrence's distiguished career has earned him a National Medal of Arts, election to the National Academy of Arts and Letters and the National Acadamy of Design, a National Council of the Arts commissionership, Guggenheim and Fullbright appointments, and dozens of honorary degrees and awards, including the NAACP's Spingarn Medal. His painting has been featured in several major retrospective exhibitions and numerous one-person shows at many of America's most prestigious museums" (The Reader's Companion to American History).
Lawrence resides now in Seattle, Washington with his wife Gwendolyn.
One specific comment Lawrence made in regards to his Migration Series was, "I don't think about this series in terms of history. I think in terms of contemporary life. It was such a part of me I didn't think of something outside....It was a portrait of myself, a portrait of my family, a portrait of my peers....It was like a still life with bread, a still life with flowers. It was like a landscape you see."

To visit a site where you can view some of Lawrence's works from the Migration Series, click HERE.

Other African Americans Instrumental During This Period

1. Jean Toomer 1894-1967 (Writer)
2. Zora Neal Hurston 1891-1960 (Novelist, Folklorist, Anthropologist)
3. James Weldon Johnson (Writer, Diplomat, Civil Rights Leader)
4. Madame C. J. Walker (Entrepreneur)

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Alain Leroy Locke. http://www.founders.howard.edu/locke.htm

Concise Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia (1994). University Press. Licensed from and portions
(1995). by INSO Corporation

Encarta Schoolhouse The Harlem Renaissance. Microsoft. http://www.encarta.com/schoolhouse/Harlem/harlem.asp

Jacob Lawrence. http://www.chaos.com/learn/lawrence.html

Pal: Perspectives in American Literature. A Research and Reference Guide

PBS Organization Newshour Forum February 1998
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/forum/february98/harlem_2-20.html

The Reader's Companion to American History Eric Foner and John A. Garraty, Editors. (1995).
by INSO Corporation.

The San Antonio College LitWeb Harlem Renaissance Reference Page

Written by Tersa Bush, Jennifer Bolicher and Harry Lee Bowman
Edited by Mark Canada