The Harlem Renaissance, which occurred between 1920 and 1935, was a period of intense flourishing and creativity among black artists, many of whom gathered in Harlem.
Its goals were to nurture black culture and artists, allowing their distinct voices to develop and be heard. The Harlem Renaissance asserted that there was life and vitality in the black experience. It demonstrated that blacks were equally capable as whites of producing great literature, painting, and music.
A second, and very important goal, was to publicize and protest the treatment of blacks in the United States. Periodicals such as Crisis hoped to convey, even through their names, the precarious situation of blacks in a country in which racism had been enshrined into law. This was a period of rapid expansion of the Ku Klux Klan. It was an era of lynchings and of segregation. Harlem Renaissance artists hoped to use their art to both protest this situation and to create a more positive image of blacks than prevailing stereotypes allowed.
One example of protesting the black experience is Langston Hughes' 1925 poem, "As I Grew Older," which shows how racism limits people:
It was a long time ago.
I have almost forgotten my dream.
But it was there then,
In front of me,
Bright like a sun—
My dream.
And then the wall rose,
Rose slowly,
Slowly,
Between me and my dream.
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