Historical Context
The Great Migration
The Great Migration saw vast numbers of African Americans relocating from the rural South to northern industrial cities during the early 20th century in pursuit of better employment opportunities. This demographic shift contributed to the cultural flourishing known as the Harlem Renaissance.
Throughout most of the 19th century, the southern United States, much like the rest of the country, was predominantly agricultural. However, by the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the northern economy began transitioning to an industrial base. The stagnation of the southern economy motivated both black and white farm workers to consider moving north, where jobs were more plentiful. Southern African Americans viewed this move as a step towards economic independence and a chance for a better life in a region where they believed they might be treated more fairly.
Besides the declining southern economy, African Americans were also drawn to the North due to the U.S. limiting immigration during World War I, which led to a labor shortage in northern factories that needed to ramp up production for the war effort. Companies that had previously been reluctant to hire African Americans now actively recruited them, even sending labor agents to the South to find workers and offer training in fields like shipbuilding. Soon, family members were returning from cities like New York, Detroit, and Chicago, sharing stories of better jobs and higher wages. Between 1916 and 1919, approximately half a million African Americans moved north, and about one million made the journey in the 1920s. From 1910 to 1920, New York City’s African-American population increased by 50 percent.
The New Negro
The term “New Negro” was originally used by white Americans to describe newly enslaved Africans. However, in the early 20th century, it came to signify an African American who was politically aware, well educated, and proud of their cultural heritage—the antithesis of a submissive slave. Booker T. Washington’s concept of the New Negro, as outlined in his 1900 book, A New Negro for a New Century, emphasized education, self-improvement, and self-respect.
During the Harlem Renaissance, Locke used the term in the title of his anthology of African-American poetry and prose, The New Negro: An Interpretation. Locke believed that African-American writers and artists should take on leadership roles within their communities and work to present white America with a new image of blacks as creative and productive individuals. According to Locke, the New Negro should be an African American who asserts themselves economically, politically, and culturally. In promoting the New Negro philosophy, Locke organized traveling African-American art exhibits and helped initiate a national black theater movement.
Red Summer of 1919
In the years right after World War I, racial tensions between blacks and whites intensified. White veterans returning to northern cities felt threatened by the growing black population and their improved economic status compared to prewar times. Many black soldiers came back from the war questioning why they were still treated as second-class citizens at home despite their bravery and commendations from the French. Southerners noticed that blacks visiting from northern cities exhibited a newfound confidence. Economic pressures also affected the general American population as the government lifted price controls, causing unemployment and inflation to rise.
During the summer and early fall of 1919, twenty-five race riots broke out across the nation in cities like Chicago, Charleston, Omaha, and Washington, D.C. Over six weeks, seventy-six lynchings were reported, with a dozen of those being black men still in their service uniforms.
Johnson coined the term “Red Summer” while investigating these events for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People....
(This entire section contains 919 words.)
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The nation's postwar fear of the new Bolshevik, or “red,” regime in Russia heightened racial tensions. Many efforts by blacks to improve their economic and political status were met with white suspicions that they were as “radical” as the Russian Bolsheviks.
Life in Harlem during the 1920s and 1930s
Harlem, a neighborhood in New York City, emerged as the leading black urban enclave in the United States in the early twentieth century, following a significant migration of blacks from southern and rural areas. Previously a wealthy white neighborhood, economic hardships and soaring real estate prices at the turn of the century led savvy entrepreneurs to lease vacant rooms in white-owned buildings to black newcomers. Harlem's black population grew from about fifty thousand in 1914 to two hundred thousand by 1930.
The neighborhood attracted black intellectuals, artists, and others eager to engage in Harlem's increasingly dynamic cultural scene. Black political organizations, such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the National Urban League, set up offices in Harlem. Major black newspapers, including The Messenger and The New York Age, also established their presence there. Marcus Garvey, the leader of the "back-to-Africa" movement, founded his Universal Negro Improvement Association in Harlem. Garvey and others inspired Harlemites with their messages of black pride and self-reliance.
Harlem quickly became an entertainment hub in the early 20th century. Musical performers flocked to Harlem, attracted by its vibrant atmosphere and the numerous nightclubs where jazz was immensely popular. Artists like Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, and Fats Waller entertained enthusiastic audiences at venues such as Smalls’s Inn and the Savoy Ballroom. However, it wasn't just locals who frequented these lively nightclubs; whites from other parts of New York City "discovered" Harlem, making it the hotspot for Saturday night outings. Ironically, some of these clubs, including the famous Cotton Club, were off-limits to blacks until 1928, catering exclusively to a wealthy white clientele seeking to experience the "exotic" Harlem nightlife.
Style and Technique
Dialect and Colloquialisms
There was no agreement on the use of black or rural dialect among Harlem Renaissance writers. Some embraced it extensively, while others avoided it completely. Hurston employed dialect in Their Eyes Were Watching God to capture the atmosphere and tone of the language she encountered while gathering folktales. This choice led Richard Wright to criticize the novel, accusing her of perpetuating a negative and stereotypical portrayal of black people for white audiences.
Johnson incorporated dialect and misspellings in some of his poems but chose to abandon these techniques when composing his collection of rural sermons in verse, God’s Trombones, widely regarded as his finest work. He reportedly felt that dialect limited his creative expression in God’s Trombones. The sermons maintain the rhythm and pacing he admired in black preachers but are presented in a more refined manner. For instance, the poem-sermon “The Creation” is written in standard English but retains the cadence of powerful oratory:
Then God himself stepped down—
And the sun was on his right hand,
And the moon was on his left;
The stars were clustered about his head,
And the earth was under his feet . . . .
Music
Many Renaissance poets experimented with the rhythms of popular music in their work, but none was as renowned for this technique as Hughes. He infused his poetry with the beats of blues and jazz, echoing the sounds and music he experienced in Harlem's clubs and streets. Hughes’s poetry not only captures the rhythms of familiar music but also addresses themes common in many blues songs: financial struggles, failed relationships, loneliness, and sexual longing. In the poem “The Weary Blues,” Hughes describes a piano player performing at a club, using repetition, a common technique in blues music.
Urban and Rural Settings
Since many Harlem Renaissance writers migrated from rural areas to cities, both settings became vital elements of their work. For instance, Toomer’s book Cane, which includes poetry, stories, and a play, features a section focused entirely on characters in a rural Georgian setting, with vivid images of trees and sugar cane. The second section shifts to Washington, D.C., filled with depictions of streets, nightclubs, houses, and theaters. Hurston, on the other hand, set most of her stories in rural towns, aligning with her lifelong mission to collect black rural folktales.
The transition between rural and urban settings is crucial to many Renaissance novels. In McKay’s Home to Harlem, the main setting is Harlem. However, each protagonist hails from a different place: Jake is believed to originate from the rural South, while Ray is Haitian. Larsen’s novel Quicksand follows a biracial woman who journeys from her position at a black southern college to various major cities worldwide in her quest to find a place she can genuinely call home. Ultimately, she ends up in rural Alabama, where she feels stifled.
Movement Variations
Visual Arts during the Harlem Renaissance
During the Harlem Renaissance, visual arts made a powerful impact by portraying images that reflected a newly awakened awareness of heritage and culture. Michele Y. Washington, in her article on Harlem Renaissance art and artists in Print, highlights that black artists' fascination with Egypt as part of their African heritage influenced many motifs in the Art Deco style, which became popular in the 1920s and 1930s.
Aaron Douglas, a prominent artist of the era, incorporated images of African masks and sculptures into his geometric, Art Deco-style illustrations. He apprenticed under Winold Reiss, a German artist known for his geometric and angular designs, which graced the original cover of Alain Locke’s The New Negro. Douglas emerged as a leading illustrator for the period’s magazines and books and also painted large murals in several Harlem nightclubs.
Many of the foremost artists of the Renaissance had formal art education but embraced vibrant and dynamic African imagery to diverge from traditional European art forms. Similar to Douglas, numerous artists collaborated with black writers to adorn the covers and interiors of their poetry collections, novels, and magazines.
The Renaissance in Other American Cities
Although the epicenter of the African-American cultural explosion in literature, music, art, and politics was Harlem, other cities also experienced their own versions of the Harlem Renaissance during the 1920s and 1930s. Cities like Chicago, Philadelphia, Detroit, and Washington, D.C., were also buzzing with artistic and literary activity.
For instance, Alain Locke maintained his connection with Howard University in Washington, D.C., where he chaired the philosophy department for over forty years. Washington, D.C., was a starting point for several writers, including Jean Toomer and Rudolph Fisher, and Langston Hughes frequently spent time there. Chicago was not only a hub of musical innovation during the 1920s and 1930s but also home to writers like Frank Marshall Davis. Additionally, Richard Wright, writing just after the Renaissance, drew heavily from his Chicago experiences in his work.
Music during the Harlem Renaissance
Music deeply permeated Harlem during the 1920s and 1930s. Protestant churches resonated with both traditional and new spirituals that uplifted congregations, while the neighborhood's numerous speakeasies, nightclubs, and theaters thrummed with jazz and blues, keeping dancers on their feet until the early morning hours.
Among the various musical styles in Harlem, the area is most renowned for its jazz. Prominent black bandleaders like Louis Armstrong, Fletcher Henderson, and Duke Ellington elevated jazz to become the foremost musical genre in both the neighborhood and the nation during the 1920s and 1930s. Despite this, many individuals, including numerous black intellectuals, considered its rhythms to be too rough and risqué. Nevertheless, the passion for jazz persisted, with patrons flocking to Harlem's numerous clubs nearly every night to experience the energy and spontaneity that defined jazz.
In 1926, the Savoy Ballroom opened its doors, offering affordable cover charges that attracted people from all races and economic backgrounds to enjoy evenings filled with dancing and the finest jazz in the world. While the venue hosted many famous musicians, it also provided a platform for unknown artists to test their talent. Jazz and blues legends Bessie Smith and Ella Fitzgerald both launched their careers at the Savoy.
Compare and Contrast
1920s–1930s: Harlem is renowned for its entertainment spots, such as the Savoy Ballroom, the Cotton Club, and the Apollo Theater. These venues frequently host national acts like Louis Armstrong, Fats Waller, and Lionel Hampton.
Today: After shutting down in the 1970s due to African-American performers finding higher-paying venues, the Apollo is now a national historic landmark managed by a nonprofit organization. It features international stars like Luther Vandross, B.B. King, hip-hop artists, and emerging musicians aspiring for national recognition.
1920s–1930s: Claude McKay publishes his novel Home to Harlem, the first bestselling book in the United States written by an African American. Major New York publishing houses begin seeking the next black writer to meet the public's newfound interest in African-American literature.
Today: Prominent black authors are no longer a rarity. Works by Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison, and Henry Louis Gates Jr. frequently appear on national bestseller lists.
1920s–1930s: Lynchings and racially motivated murders of blacks are tragically common. In 1920, approximately thirty-three blacks are lynched; in 1930, around twenty-four blacks fall victim to lynchings.
Today: According to national hate crime statistics from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, three racially motivated murders of African Americans and 462 racially motivated aggravated assaults against African Americans occurred in the year 2000.
Representative Works
Cane
Jean Toomer’s Cane is a three-part novel that blends poems and short stories. Released in 1923, the book was celebrated as a groundbreaking examination of black urban and rural life in early 20th-century America.
Toomer’s innovative approach to style, structure, and language was influenced by the many avant-garde writers and artists he encountered while residing in Greenwich Village, New York City. Critics praised the novel for its departure from traditional realism and its vibrant use of language, though it achieved limited popular success. Despite Toomer’s subsequent work on essays and plays, Cane remained his only published book.
Color
In 1925, Countee Cullen released his first poetry collection, Color, to widespread acclaim. Cullen’s work, including the poems in Color, was celebrated for its beauty and lyricism, even as it addressed themes of racism. Alain Locke, in his review in Opportunity, published shortly after the collection’s release, hailed Cullen as “a genius,” likening him to poets A. E. Houseman and Edna St. Vincent Millay.
Both black and white readers eagerly anticipated Cullen’s debut collection; his poetry, especially from Color, became so popular that many African Americans of the time memorized his verses. The most famous poem from this collection is “Heritage,” where Cullen reflects on the significance of Africa to himself and African Americans. The collection won a Harmon Foundation award in 1925.
God’s Trombones: Seven Negro Sermons in Verse
James Weldon Johnson’s God’s Trombones: Seven Negro Sermons in Verse was published in 1927. This poetry collection established Johnson as a literary luminary of the era and echoed the style and rhythm of the sermons he heard in African-American churches. Countee Cullen, reviewing the collection in The Bookman, described Johnson’s work as “magnificent.” Critics have frequently noted Johnson’s choice to avoid using dialect in this collection, a decision that has generally received positive feedback.
Home to Harlem
Claude McKay’s novel Home to Harlem was published in 1928 and is the first in a series of three novels often considered a trilogy depicting black life in America. The narrative focuses on the relationship between two black men, Jake and Ray. Jake, an AWOL soldier, is eager to return to Harlem and the good times he remembers. In contrast, Ray is a highly educated man who has become disconnected from his culture. Through their interactions, McKay illustrates two different responses to racial prejudice in 1920s America. Ray, struggling with intellectual turmoil, leaves the United States for Europe, while Jake stays in Harlem, content with his life and friends but determined to preserve his pride.
Home to Harlem was the first book by a black author to become a bestseller in the United States. The novel's immense commercial success led to it being reprinted five times within two months. Many readers were drawn to its vivid portrayal of jazz-age Harlem, featuring scenes of prostitutes, nightclubs, and wild parties. However, numerous critics, especially black critics who believed that positive depictions of African Americans could help resolve racial issues in the country, condemned McKay’s novel for its risqué depiction of black life in Harlem.
The New Negro: An Interpretation
Many historians and critics of the Harlem Renaissance attribute the surge of creativity among black artists and writers in the 1920s and 1930s to the 1925 release of Alain Locke’s anthology, The New Negro: An Interpretation. This collection features poetry and prose from prominent Renaissance figures like Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, Zora Neale Hurston, and Claude McKay. The anthology’s high-quality work garnered attention from literary critics of the era and introduced the public to the talents of previously unknown writers. Additionally, the book helped black writers realize they were not alone by showcasing others' efforts and fostering an atmosphere of inspiration.
The anthology received rave reviews, including praise from W. E. B. Du Bois. Locke was convinced that a group of African-American artists and writers could bridge the gap between white and black communities, and the publication of The New Negro was an attempt to initiate that process.
Quicksand
Nella Larsen authored two novels on the experiences of light-skinned blacks living as whites, Quicksand and Passing, with Quicksand, published in 1928, being the first and more acclaimed. In Quicksand, Larsen narrates the story of a woman of mixed heritage, much like herself, who feels out of place in both black and white societies.
Critics admired the rich psychological depth Larsen provided her characters, as well as the novel’s use of symbolism. Many readers also appreciated that a black writer addressed sensitive issues of race and culture while setting most of the story in a relatively refined environment, contrasting with many other novels depicting impoverished black communities. The publication of Quicksand brought Larsen to the attention of Harlem Renaissance intellectuals, including W. E. B. Du Bois and Alain Locke, who predicted her continued success as an author. The novel earned the Harmon Foundation’s bronze medal in 1928.
Their Eyes Were Watching God
Critics regard Their Eyes Were Watching God as Zora Neale Hurston’s finest work of fiction. This 1937 novel, although published late in the Harlem Renaissance period, is deeply influenced by Hurston’s extensive efforts in collecting black folktales during the 1920s and 1930s. It narrates the journey of a black woman striving to assert her identity—both as an African American and as a woman—in the southern United States around the year 1900.
The reception of Their Eyes Were Watching God was mixed. Some readers appreciated its authentic depiction of life in small black communities, while others, like Richard Wright, criticized Hurston for allegedly using racial stereotypes to appeal to white audiences. Initially, the novel was undervalued and seen as escapist fiction. However, it gained significant recognition in the latter half of the twentieth century as a feminist story of empowerment and self-fulfillment.
The Weary Blues
The Weary Blues, Langston Hughes’s debut poetry collection published in 1926, features both traditional lyric poems on classical themes and poems addressing the black experience in early twentieth-century America. Some of Hughes’s most powerful verses in this collection reflect his love for blues and jazz, mimicking the rhythms of popular tunes heard in Harlem nightclubs and on the streets.
Although a few poems in this collection were written during Hughes’s teenage years, critics noted a unique energy and vitality in the volume. Many of these poems, including “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” remain among Hughes’s most famous and beloved works. However, some black critics were uneasy with his unconventional rhyming schemes and felt that his portrayals of unrefined blacks and their everyday lives perpetuated negative stereotypes. They labeled him a “racial artist,” suggesting he overly relied on his African American identity. Conversely, other critics lauded his successful incorporation of musical styles into his poetry, especially in the title poem, “The Weary Blues,” which captures the essence of a piano player in a nightclub. Hughes’s experimental style garnered both admiration and criticism from various readers and critics.
Adaptations
In 1984, Francis Ford Coppola directed The Cotton Club, a film starring Richard Gere, Diane Lane, and Gregory Hines. The movie focuses on the iconic jazz nightclub in Harlem during the 1920s and 1930s. It was distributed by Orion Pictures Corporation.
In 1937, Claude McKay’s novel Banjo was adapted into the film Big Fella, which was distributed by British Lion Film Corporation.
Langston Hughes's short story “Cora Unashamed” was turned into a television film of the same name in 2000. The movie was distributed by the Public Broadcasting Service.
Rhapsodies in Black: Music and Words from the Harlem Renaissance is a boxed set featuring four CDs with various artists from the era performing their works. For instance, Langston Hughes reads his poem “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” and Duke Ellington performs “The Cotton Club Stomp.” Additionally, contemporary artists also contribute to the recording; rapper Ice-T reads Claude McKay’s poem “If We Must Die.” The set was released in 2000 by Wea/Rhino.
Langston Hughes’s first poetry collection, The Weary Blues, is celebrated on a CD of the same name. The CD features Hughes reciting his poems, accompanied by the legendary jazz musician Charles Mingus, who performs music that captures the essence of a Harlem blues club. Originally released in 1958, the CD is available on the Uni/Verve label.
Bibliography
Sources
Baker, Houston A., Jr., Modernism and the Harlem Renaissance, University of Chicago Press, 1987, p. 85.
Bamikunle, Aderemi, “The Harlem Renaissance and White Critical Tradition,” in CLA Journal, Vol. 29, No. 1, September 1985, pp. 33–51.
Cullen, Countee, “And the Walls Came Tumblin’ Down,” in the Bookman, Vol. LXVI, No. 2, October 1927, pp. 221–22.
English, Daylanne K., “Selecting the Harlem Renaissance,” in Critical Inquiry, Vol. 25, No. 4, Summer 1999, pp. 807–15.
Huggins, Nathan I., Harlem Renaissance, Oxford University Press, 1971, pp.10–11.
Hughes, Langston, “The Dream Keeper,” in Survey Graphic, Vol. 6, No. 6, March 1925, p. 664.
Janken, Kenneth R., “African American and Francophone Black Intellectuals during the Harlem Renaissance,” in the Historian, Vol. 60, No. 3, Spring 1998, pp. 487ff.
Kent, George E., “The Fork in the Road: Patterns of the Harlem Renaissance,” in Black Word, Vol. 21, No. 8, June 1972, pp. 13–24, 76–80.
Locke, Alain, “Color—A Review,” in Opportunity, Vol. 4, No. 37, January 1926, pp. 14–15.
—, “Enter the New Negro,” in Survey Graphic, Vol. 6, No. 6, March 1925, pp. 631–34.
—, “Youth Speaks,” in Survey Graphic, Vol. 6, No. 6, March 1925, pp. 659–60.
McKay, Claude, “White Houses,” in Survey Graphic, Vol. 6, No. 6, March 1925, p. 662.
Perry, Margaret, The Harlem Renaissance: An Annotated Bibliography and Commentary, Garland Publishing, Inc., 1982, pp. xxxv–xxxvi.
Singh, Amritjit, “‘When the Negro Was in Vogue’: The Harlem Renaissance and Black America,” in The Novels of the Harlem Renaissance: Twelve Black Writers, 1923–1933, Pennsylvania State University Press, 1976, pp. 1–39.
Stuart, Andrea, “The Harlem Renaissance in the Twenties Produced a Wealth of Black Talent. But What Was Its Legacy and Who Did It Really Benefit?” in the New Statesman, Vol. 10, No. 459, June 27, 1997, pp. 40–41.
Wall, Cheryl A., “Poets and Versifiers, Singers and Signifiers: Women of the Harlem Renaissance,” in Women, the Arts, and the 1920s in Paris and New York, edited by Kenneth W. Wheeler and Virginia Lee Lussier, Transaction Books, 1982, pp. 74–98.
Washington, Michele Y., “Souls on Fire: The Artists of the Black Renaissance in the 1920s and ’30s Defined a New Cultural Identity Reflecting Their African Roots,” in Print, Vol. 52, No. 3, May–June 1998.
Further Reading
Bontemps, Arna, The Harlem Renaissance Remembered, Dodd, Mead, 1972. This collection of essays is by a writer and thinker who participated in the Harlem Renaissance. The second chapter offers a helpful overview of the era.
Hughes, Langston, The Big Sea, Hill and Wang, 1993. Originally published in 1940, this is a reprint of Hughes’s autobiography, detailing his life as a poet in Harlem and his experiences as a cook and waiter in various Paris nightclubs during the 1920s.
Lewis, David L., When Harlem Was in Vogue, Alfred A. Knopf, 1981. This book provides a social history of Harlem in the 1920s, focusing on the literature and music produced during that time.
—, ed., The Portable Harlem Renaissance Reader, Penguin USA, 1995. This anthology includes essays, memoirs, drama, poetry, and fiction from forty-five prominent and lesser-known writers of the Harlem Renaissance.
Wintz, Cary D., Black Culture and the Harlem Renaissance, Rice University Press, 1988. Wintz's book delves into the Harlem Renaissance within the framework of African American social and intellectual history in the United States. It links the Renaissance authors to the broader literary community.