The Civil War had been over for forty-nine years. When Reconstruction in the South ended thirty-nine years earlier, their voices were silenced with violence. African Americans were full citizens who were lynched, raped, and brutally beaten. In 1914, some with carefully thought-out plans, others in desperate impulse, poverty-strangled sharecroppers fled the rural South to the North. Some thought the region would be a paradise of liberation, but they soon discovered that menial jobs were their plight. Sub-standard housing and exorbitant rents were the norm. This same scenario was in the seven cities to which most of them fled: New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh in the North and Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland and Cincinnati, Ohio in the Midwest. The most populated area was Harlem in upper Manhattan, New York.[1] About five hundred thousand people were sardined into an area five miles long and not quite a mile wide.[2] Admittedly, life was hard, but no particular group stood over them directing their lives. Their time and efforts were their own choosing. They could live, speak, and represent themselves in Harlem as they pleased. Today could be different from yesterday and tomorrow different from today.
There was an explosion of innovation and creativity in Harlem. Black magazines like, The Crisis, The Messenger, and Opportunity spoke for and informed Black people. Free art schools to explore sculpture, painting and other visual arts were founded by Black people, and they found sponsors beyond Harlem to support these learning centers. Music on every instrument flourished and from this surge was birthed a new genre—jazz. Soloists to trios to small and large bands played the music. The Blues, its cousin genre, could purr to the core of one’s disappointments or belt out second chances in this life. Night clubs abounded. There were modern dance groups and exciting drama in theatres. However, the greatest vehicle in Black self-expression was its literary works. Writers saw the arts as a means to present Black culture to the world.[3] The arts were mirrors of themselves. Black people were discovering and utilizing their diverse and kindred voices to portray themselves.
The influence of the Harlem Renaissance continues because its forms were as diverse, innovative, informative, and gifted as its people. Whatever the form of expression, the Black Renaissance, birthed by the Harlem Renaissance, speaks to and of the people of African descent.
Resources
Bibliography
Berry, Daina Ramey and Kali Nicole Gross. A Black Women’s History of the United States. Boston Beacon Press, 2020.
Griffin, Farah Jasmine. “The Harlem Renaissance.” Four Hundred Souls, edited by Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain, 287-291. New York: One World, 2021.
Hine, Darlene Clark and Kathleen Thompson. A Shining Thread of Hope: The History of Black Women in America. New York: Broadway Books, 1998.
Kelly, Robin D.G. and Earl Lewis, editors. To Make Our World Anew: A History of African Americans. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.
Wilkerson, Isabel. The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration. New York: Vintage Books, 2010.
Dorothy Watson Tatem, D.Min., ACC
Senior Associate
Next Step Associates, LLC
Cassandra W. Jones, Ed.D.
CEO & President
[1] Hines and Thompson, A Shining Thread of Hope, 214.
[2] Wilkerson, Warmth of Other Suns, 277.
[3] Griffin, “The Harlem Renaissance,” 288.
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