Between the 1920s and 30s, African Americans from all over the south relocated themselves and their families to major cities like Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and New York to escape the harsh realities of the south. African Americans were treated as second class citizens in the south because of Jim Crow Laws and segregation, African Americans weren’t seen as human beings but property.
African Americans were subjugated to jobs like sharecropping and other slave related jobs, so that whites could still receive free labor from blacks. These jobs were designed to keep freed blacks oppressed, poor, and suppressed to their environment. Many blacks realized that for them to live a more bearable lifestyle they would have to move to the North or Midwest. The North and Midwest offered African Americans and every other race an opportunity to work industrial jobs in a flourishing economy (Rights). This was a major opportunity for blacks to provide a better lifestyle for their families.
With more blacks migrating into Harlem, Harlem became the destination for some of the greatest talents historically known within the African American Community Today. With their new-found freedom, African Americans were determined and encouraged to form a new identity as The New Negro (Culture). They Overcame their struggles of the south and turned their pain into a force that could not be reckoned with.
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African Americans were culturally expressive and prideful of their African American race. The Harlem Renaissance birth some of the greatest influencers culturally known today like Josephine Baker, Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong, W.E.B. Du Bois, Marcus Garvey, Zora Neale Hurston, Augusta Savage, and numerous others.
The Harlem Renaissance was an early version of Black Wall Street, but the entertainment side of it all. African Americans owned and ran publishing houses and newspapers, music companies, playhouses, nightclubs, and cabarets (Johnston). They addressed issues of religion, gender, race, racism, and class. The Harlem Renaissance challenged the way society viewed African Americans. African Americans reimaged themselves through music like jazz, swing, blues, and art (Johnston).
This historical period was a time where African Americans were militant, went places they thought they couldn’t, broke barriers down, and unified blacks together as one. They paved the way for many entertainers today and furthered our movement as a people. The Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 60s was paved because African Americans were self-determined, committed to political activism, pride, and awakening (Rights).
The Harlem Renaissance defined African American culture and black pride to which we know today. Alain Locke helped launch the Harlem Renaissance and is known as the dean of the Harlem Renaissance. Without his influence and determination, the Harlem Renaissance probably wouldn’t have been what it was. Alain Locke was a leading black intellectual during the early twentieth century and he challenged African Americans to acknowledge and promote their cultural heritage (WATSON).
The Harlem Renaissance was an era that birthed some of the greatest talents, scholars, poets, writers, artists, performers, and musicians. Langston Hughes stated, “Perhaps the mission of an artist is to interpret beauty to people – the beauty within themselves.” (Beete)
