Harlem Renaissance
Uploaded by Leiny on Apr 23, 2006
What was the Harlem Renaissance? The Harlem Renaissance was an era where African-Americans revealed their abilities not only in literature but also in art and music. This period lasted from the end of World War I through the middle of the 1930’s Depression. During this period, a tremendous outbreak of black intellectuals took place in Harlem a district of New York City. In the middle of this revolutionary atmosphere, a small group of black men and women began a public relations campaign to promote what they called the “New Negro” movement. The name of this public relations campaign was “The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People”. This movement encouraged every black person to become the “New Negro” and join the new more sophisticated and educated African-American culture and community.
Sixty black, white men and women founded the NAACP February 12, 1909. Following the horrifyingly acts done to black Americans in Springfield, Illinois. The white Americans attempted to lynch and remove black residents from their hometown. The NAACP worked restlessly for three decades on a campaign against lynching. Lynching is the punishment of presumed crimes or offenses usually by death without due process of law. The association also fought against other injustices such as the grandfather clause law that prevented the right to vote for many black Americans. This law consisted mainly in giving the right to vote solely to the black Americans whose grandfathers were not enslaved. Logically this law denied the enfranchisement of black Americans. Despite all of the NAACP victories in the United States governmental system, its biggest victory was obtaining the verdict of the Supreme Court in 1954 to declare segregation in the schools as unconstitutional.
The black sociologist and historian W. E. B. Dubois editor of “The Crisis Magazine” published “The Souls Of Black Folks.” In this piece of literature he stated in a quote the next few words, “One ever feels two-ness-and American, a Negro, Two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled stirrings: two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn as under.” In this quote, it is clearly visible that Dubois was emerging his black community to use literature as there escape into freedom, and a more unified culture, from this point on the African Americans felt free to express themselves, to allow their creativity to be honored and appreciated by others without any repression or fear....