5.8: The Harlem Renaissance

Discover the vibrant Harlem Renaissance: its art, music, and key figures who shaped a generation.

Fill in the blanks as you read through the summary for lesson 5.8: The Harlem Renaissance. Millions of African Americans left the South after World War I to find racial equity and economic opportunity in the North. In the South, they faced low-paying jobs, substandard schools, Jim Crow oppression, and the threat of lynching. However, they found well-paying jobs, middle-class communities of African American professionals, and a growing political voice in cities such as New York, Chicago, and Detroit.Harlem in New York City became a haven for about 200,000 African Americans from the South as well as black immigrants from the Caribbean. One immigrant wasMarcus Garvey, a Jamaican who had traveled widely. After seeing that blacks were treated poorly, Garvey organized a “Back to Africa” movement that urged black unity and separation of the races.It was F. Scott Fitzgerald who called the 1920s the “Jazz Age.” However, it was African Americans who gave the age itsjazz. A truly indigenous American musical form, jazz emerged in the South as a combination of African American and European musical styles. African Americans migrating north brought the new musical style with them. Musicians such as trumpet playerLouis Armstrongtook jazz to the world. SingerBessie Smith, nicknamed the “Empress of the Blues,” was very popular and became the highest-paid African American entertainer of the 1920s.The decade also saw theHarlem Renaissance, an outpouring of art and literature that explored the African American experience. Among its most famous writers was Jamaican-bornClaude McKay, whose novels and poems were militant calls for action.Langston Hughescelebrated African American culture, andZora Neale Hurstonwrote about women’s desire for independence.The Great Depression ended the Harlem Renaissance. However, the pride and unity it created provided a foundation for the future civil rights movement.