THE HARLEM RENAISSANCE By: Toni-Moi Campbell

FACTS

The Harlem Renaissance was a period between 1910-1930 in New York City's Harlem that saw the flourishing of African-American art, literature, music and politics.

BACKGROUND

The years following the Civil War brought a steady stream of African-Americans to the North from the Southern states. New York's Harlem became a cultural center for poor and middle-class blacks, many of whom were well-educated.

EDUCATION

New York was one of the few states that outlawed school segregation. Blacks moved from all over the country to get an education in Harlem in the 1920s and 1930s.

THE COTTON CLUB

The Harlem Renaissance occurred during what was known as the "Jazz Age," a period that coincided with Prohibition and brought about underground speakeasies like the Cotton Club.

WRITERS

The Harlem Renaissance may be most well-known for its black literary figures including Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, and Nella Larsen. Their works are still considered some of the best on the black American experience.

POLITICS

Activists like Marcus Garvey, Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Dubois laid a political foundation for the Harlem Renaissance. These men and others courageously spoke against racism and oppression in America and worldwide.

OTHER NAMES FOR THIS PERIOD….

The Harlem Renaissance was also known as the New Negro Movement.

The Jazz age

The New Negro Renaissance

FAMOUS PEOPLE

Zora Neale Hurston Duke Ellington Bessie Smith W.E.B. DuBois Meta Warrick Fuller

ZORA NEALE HURSTON

Zora Neale Hurston was a writer who became the first African-American student to receive a bachelor's degree from Barnard College.

DUKE ELLINGTON

Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was responsible for over 2,000 jazz compositions in his lifetime, defining the sound of jazz not only during the Harlem Renaissance but beyond.

BESSIE SMITH

Bessie Smith is known as "Empress of the Blues" for her immersion into every style and storyline of blues imaginable.

W.E.B. DUBOIS

William Edward Burghardt DuBois worked diligently as an educator and political activist to prove that the key to ending racism lay in education.

META WARRICK FULLER

Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller was a sculptor who not only created works that exemplified ideals of the Harlem Renaissance, but also challenged the art world in her rejection of Neoclassicism

PICTURES

JAZZ WAS THE SOUND OF HARLEM RENAISSANCE MUSIC!

Jazz was the sound of the 1920s. Jazz and individuality blossomed in the Roaring Twenties, and there was no better medium to nurture the pure jazz sound than 1920's Harlem.

"MUSICIANS OF THE HARLEM RENAISSANCE"

Louis Armstrong Josephine Baker Edward Kennedy Ellington Dizzy Gillespie Billie Holiday Charlie Parker

ART WORKS

MOST FAMOUS POET IN HARLEMLANGSTON HUGHES

END OF THE HARLEM RENAISSANCE

The Harlem Renaissance ended in the 1930s after the effects of the Great Depression set in. The economic downturn led to the departure of Harlem's prominent writers.

Although the Harlem Renaissance lasted a brief time, it had an enduring influence on later black writers and helped to ease the way for the publication of works by black authors.