The Historical Background of

W.E.Duboise

American Scholar and Activist and Founder of the NAACP

Harlem in the 20’s and 30’sWas the Center of an Intellectual and Cultural Movement.

The Harlem Renaissance

• Residents were well off financially• They supported Churches like The African

Methodist Episcopal Zion• Newpapers: “The Messenger”• Magazines: “Crisis”• People were social • Clubs like the Cotton Club, Savoy and Apollo

Theatre were known as first class entertainment.

Bill “Bojangles” Robinson

• Great Tap Dancer• King of Harlem

Tons of Culture

• Writers: Langston Hughes• Artists: Jacob Lawrence• Musicians: Fats Waller and Duke Ellington • All contributed to this incredible creative time.

Duke Ellington

Then the Great Depression Hit

World War II Happened

Over the Next 20 Years: 1960’s

• Housing conditions deteriorated• There were extensive slums• The middle class left for suburban areas like

Queens• It’s an impoverished Harlem that children have

to grow up in.

This Is What Harlem Had Become

Types of Housing in HarlemIn the 1960’s

African Americans struggled with the question of trying to live with whites or separating from them.

Marcus Garvey led one of the first popular black nationalist movements

Discrimination Reflects the Culture of the Time

Dominating the Nationalist SceneIn Harlem in the 1960’s

• Malcolm X• Started the Organization of Afro-American

Unity • Believed in Elijah Muhammad’s Nation of

Islam

These Teachings were also at the time of : Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

• King Taught : A Peaceful integration

Malcolm Xtaught a very different philosophy

Race is complicated during this time period

• There is white racism against blacks• Racial slurs by blacks against blacks• Racial slurs against Jews. (Remember this is

only 15-20 years after WWII)

As You Read Watch for These Racial Issues:

• The Poverty of Harlem• Racism• Black Nationalism• Importance of Black Churches• Integration• Movement of Middle Class Blacks Out of

Harlem.