10 GROUNDCOVER NEWS BLACK CULTURE MARCH 8, 2024 Harlem renaissance: a revolution in Black cultural expression, art and aesthetics The Harlem Renaissance transformed American culture, art and aesthetics. In fact, the new cultural expression in 1920s Harlem (part of the Manhattan borough of New York City) laid the groundwork for better race relations and the genesis of a post-war civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s. According to History.com, “The Harlem Renaissance was a golden age for African American artists, writers and musicians. It gave these artists pride in and control over how the Black experience was represented in American culture…” Henry Louis Gates Jr. of Harvard says that by 1910, Harlem was home to upper class white New Yorkers. History.com says that “From 1910 to 1920, African American populations migrated in large numbers from the South to the North … By 1920, some 300,000 African Americans from the south had moved north, and Harlem was one of the most popular destinations for these families.” Black Scholars’ Perspectives on Harlem Renaissance In a short documentary produced by Henry Louis Gates and his colleagues, four scholars of the Harlem Renaissance shared their perspectives. They include Professor Gates, author/ journalist Isabel Wilkerson, and Columbia historians Farah Griffin and Brent Hayes Edwards. Their viewpoints are shown below: Henry Louis Gates: “The Harlem Renaissance is one of the most iconic cultural periods in African American history. Throughout the decade of the 1920s, Black writing, art and music flourished, ushering in a cultural revolution that rocked the United States … Amidst the fervor of the ‘Great Migration,’ bold, exciting forms of Black music evolved, along with venues to listen and dance to this music. Blues and jazz clubs became the central part of life in Harlem where artists such as Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington, Bessie and Minnie Smith rose to prominence. The era also saw the burgeoning of literary work by and about African Americans, which the writer Alaine Locke compiled into an anthology. He called it ‘The New Negro,’ and its name came to define a movement.” Farah Griffin: “One of the most important factors that accounted for the rise of what we know as the Harlem Renaissance is the migration of Black peoples from the south to urban WILL SHAKESPEARE Groundcover vendor No. 258 centers like Harlem … Sometimes, in repressive times, we create the most extraordinary art ... The Harlem Renaissance is a facet of a larger movement that we think of when we say ‘Negro Movement,’ where you have a new generation of Black people, by this point two generations out of slavery, using the art as a way to help people gain broader civil and political rights.” Isabel Wilkerson: “The Jim Crow era began after Reconstruction, and every Southern African American had to think about what we should do. Should we go? Should we stay? For many of these people, it was a matter of life and death literally … The Harlem Renaissance is the flowering of creativity that had been suppressed for centuries. People had the sense that things were opening up, and finally, finally, finally, we can be the people that we imagine ourselves to be.” Brent Hayes Edwards: “Some of the framers of what became the Harlem Renaissance make the argument that the artistic work of the people has to be proven by the worth and literature that they produced, especially for a people that historically, over the centuries, have been defined as without culture, without history and without any record of achievement.” Conclusion — Impacts and Legacy The Harlem Renaissance changed America in more ways than one. Key figures who made a significant difference include Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Nelli Larson, Paul Robeson, Alaine Locke, Oscar Micheaux, Arturo Schomberg, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, W.E.B. Du Bois, Marcus Garvey, Josephine Baker, Countee Cullen, Cab Calloway, Bessie Smith, Fats Waller, John Bubbles and Bill “Bojangles” Robinson. The night life at the Cotton Club and the Savoy received tremendous cross-over appeal between white and Black patrons. Jazz and blues Left: Duke Ellington was one of the original Cotton Club orchestra leaders. Right: Author Zora Neale Hurston. The Cotton Club, Harlem, New York City, early 1930s. Photo credit: Science History Images, Encyclopædia Britannica. music became huge sources of entertainment. Black filmmakers such as Oscar Micheaux produced movies which depicted the lived experience of Black people in Harlem and the injustice of racism and the oppressive Jim Crow system. Some of the historians and scholars cited in this article believe that the Harlem Renaissance provided America’s white society the opportunity to interact with Black people in clubs, theaters, movies, literary forums, shared community spaces and, of course, through New York City’s large public transportation system. The commingling of the races in Northern urban centers such as Harlem meant that the 1896 Supreme Court “Separate but Equal doctrine” decided on Plessy v. Ferguson were negated in Northern cities. Plessy was ignored by revelers in Harlem and other places in the north. The generations after the Harlem Renaissance have encouraged more integration of the races, and more inclusivity of diverse ethnic communities. About 100 years later, the music, the - visual art, the performance art, the literature, the architecture and the aesthetics of the African American community are thriving in every corner of America’s society. According to the Pew Research Center, younger Americans such as the Millennials and Generation Z learned to value racial equality, racial justice, and of course, DEI — Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. That’s the legacy of the Harlem Renaissance. The Harlem Renaissance came to an end in the mid-1930s. The reasons for the collapse, according to some historians, were the stock market crash of 1929 and the Great Depression. In addition, during the Works Progress Administration, the government encouraged people to look for jobs out west, and leave the cities like New York and Chicago. The Harlem area went through a demographic change. But well-known people such as the Beatles and the Rolling Stones have given credit to the music of the Harlem Renaissance for rock’n’roll and other musical genres. The influence of the Harlem Renaissance continues on.
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