- This period was part of the African American cultural movement in the 1920s and early 1930s.
- It was centered in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City and started in 1918, the ending of World War I.
- This time period marked the first time that any publisher or writer actually took African American literature seriously and with a lot of interest.
- With many educated blacks living down South in the mid 1800s during the time of the Civil War, many of them migrated up North to the neighborhood of Harlem, making this spot the center for all African American culture.
- The Harlem Renaissance was mainly a time for literary movement, but it was also a move for African American art and politics.
- A characteristic very important to the Harlem Renaissance was the diversity of this time period, with over 50 books written along with scripts for theater.
- The Harlem Renaissance was also a time to appreciate what the African American people did with their hard work to make all kinds of things for white viewers to see.
- This period was also an important beginning for black musicians to come about, where they flourished in this period.
- The Harlem Renaissance was an important time period to recognize the African American people and what they could do, which paved the way for other famous African Americans.
- The Harlem Renaissance declined in the mid 1930s and eventually ended in 1935.
Langston Hughes
- Langston Hughes was born in 1902 and is remembered for portraying black life in America in his poems.
- His main goal was to display black culture based on their own experiences, not to portray other cultures.
- Hughes's first book of poetry, The Weary Blues, was published in 1926, when he was 24.
- Hughes was extremely important in shaping the artistic contributions, like poetry, during the time of the Harlem Renaissance.
- Hughes also wrote eleven plays during his lifetime, paving the way for theater in the Harlem Renaissance for all African Americans.
- Hughes died in 1967 from prostrate cancer, but his work will never be forgotten in the time of the Harlem Renaissance.
Zora Neale Hurston
- Zora Neale Hurston was born in 1891 and she and she graduated from Morgan Academy in 1918.
- She was a novelist, folklorist, and anthropologist during the time of the Harlem Renaissance.
- She helped start the movement of the arts in the 1920s, where many black people came about in the arts.
- Hurston never included racism in her works and writings, which was a major issue during her lifetime.
- In 1937, she wrote probably her best novel in Their Eyes Watching God. This book got many great reviews from even a white audience.
- Hurston died in 1960, but her artistic abilities were greatly proven during the Harlem Renaissance.
Claude McKay
- Claude McKay was born in Jamaica in 1889 and was educated by his brother, who was very talented at literature.
- At age 20, McKay published a book of verse called the Songs of Jamaica that depicted black life in Jamaica.
- McKay's poems and sonnets greatly depict the injustices of black life in America, important in the Time of the Harlem Renaissance.
- McKay eventually went to Russia and France in the mid 1920s where he was interested in communism.
- But McKay returned back to America and lived in Harlem, New York, where he gained interest in the political leaders of Harlem and what they talked about in black culture.
- McKay's poems will be remembered for depicting the life of black culture and he was one of the few people who gained the most attention from the white audience during the time of the Harlem Renaissance.
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