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A flyer organization to pressure Congress to make lynching a federal crime.

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The cultural, political, and economic developments of the Harlem Renaissance remain significant because they empowered a community that historically had been disadvantaged, suppressed, and had their voices muted.

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Claude McKay's novels exemplified the cultural phenomenal of the Harlem Renaissance--a clash between a flourishing of culture, and the struggle to find a place in an America that was often hostile.

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Claude McKay's poetry was emotional and sobering. Looking back at the Harlem Renaissance, it is importance to remember that during the time of cultural invention, black people in America still faced significant setbacks, segregation, and hostility.

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McKay was a Jamaican-American poet and author living in Harlem.His book Harlem Shadows was the first to be published in the Harlem Renaissance. He wrote about the African American experience, segregation, and racial violence

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Fauset was a writer, author, editor and educator. In her revolutionary book "There is Confusion," she challenged societal norms by writing a biracial protagonist,and challenged concepts of good vs evil, black vs white, and black stereotypes, and explored the interconnectivity of the races in society.

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Edmonia Lewis' sculpture of Cleopatra portrayed her in her moment of death, which was highly controversial at the time. Her willingness to challenge the taboos of the time awarded her some fierce critics.

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Lewis was a black and Native American sculptor and artist and a New York native. She had little formal training, but she overcame the hurdles of the time and became a respected professional sculptor, breaking down barriers for both African Americans and women.

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The new era could be exemplified with the "zoot suit." using new textiles and styles, the slim suit represented the peak of self-expression and fashion.

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Innovations in African American fashion were an important part of the movement: women often expanded on the "flapper" style of the era, while men sought sophisticated urban styles. New fashion represented growing individualism, optimism, and confidence.

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Depicting the Great Migration into three major Northern cities

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Depicting black women ironing clothes. Notice the style: the patterns, the symmetry in design, the bright colors.

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Lawrence was a black painter in Harlem whose paintings depicted African American life, as well as the Great Migration, in which thousands or millions of black Americans fled the rural south for the cities and industrial centers of the north. Below is his self-portrait

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I hate to see that evening sun go down
I hate to see that evening sun go down
Cause my baby, he's gone left this town

Feelin' tomorrow like I feel today
If I'm feelin' tomorrow like I feel today
I'll pack my truck and make my give-a-way

St. Louis woman with her diamond ring
Pulls that man around by her, if it wasn't for her and her
That man I love would have gone nowhere, nowhere

I got the St. Louis blues

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She was a wildly popular jazz and blues singer in the 1920's, popular with both black and white audiences. She performed with many other artists, including Louis Armstrong.

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Though he was born into a poor family in New Orleans, Louis Armstrong made his career in Chicago. He was an influential figure in the Harlem Renaissance, bringing black culture to a wider audience.

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The 1920's and the Harlem Renaissance are often associated with the sudden popularity of jazz music. Jazz took orchestral and brass instruments and created a new, distinctly black sound. Jazz exemplifies the type of innovation tha characterizes the Harlem Renaissance. Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong was one prominent jazz performer.

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He was a jazz pioneer in the age of swing. He is often credited with popularizing the big band style of arrangement for jazz.

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Locke has often been descried as the "philosophical architect" of the Harlem Renaissance. His collection The New Negro codified many writers and poets of the era.

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She was an Anthropologist with an eccentric, folksy writing style. Her short story "Spunk," she illustrates the African American "voice" or speaking style. Her contributions to the flowering of black culture are represented by the inclusion of "Spunk" in Alain Locke’s 1925 collection The New Negro.

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He lived from 1899 to 1974

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Ethel Waters was first African American woman nominated for an Emmy Award.
On the right, she sings while John Bubbles dances along.

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Waters was a notable singer and performer at the Cotton Club. She sang the blues, jazz and acted.
"We are all gifted, that is our inheritance"

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'Birmingham Bertha' - Ethel Waters - 1929

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The unmissable, unforgettable and totally lovely Ethel Waters sings 'Birmingham Bertha' from the 1929 film 'On With The Show'. With her is the legendary dancer John Bubbles (John William Sublett), one half of the famous duo 'Buck & Bubbles'. Sheer magic.

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Duke Ellington's jazz orchestra gained a national profile performing at the Cotton Club during the 1920's. He viewed music as liberating, and songs became iconic in the era.

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Duke Ellington Orch. - Jubilee Stomp (1928)

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The Cotton Club was a center of Harlem art, music, drama and culture. Built in with the Duke Ellington. The club would host dance shows, vaudeville, and comedians. Its appeal to white New Yorkers, and contributed to the spreading of The New Negro philosophy into the mainstream.

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One of Aaron Douglas' iconic murals in his characteristic style represents the phases of the African American experience. Scroll past it, and notice the details of what's depicted.

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Hughes continued to write until his death in 1962

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Hughes is perhaps the most famous poet of the Harlem Renaissance. He wrote books of poetry that championed the idea that black identity should be celebrated. His most famous poems are  “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain”, “Let America Be America Again”, and “One Way Ticket”.

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His spiritualistic, mystical painting style best exemplified the "New Negro Movement." His paintings explored African American history, from enslavement to the modern struggles.

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...through disappointment, into the very depths of the souls of our people and drag forth material crude, rough, neglected....

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...Then let's sing it, dance it, write it, paint it. Let's do the impossible. Let's create something transcendentally material, mystically objective. Earthy. Spiritually earthy. Dynamic."

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"...Our problem is to conceive, develop, establish an art era. Not white art painting black...let's bare our arms and plunge them deep through laughter, through pain, through sorrow, through hope...

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Excerpt:
O, let my land be a land where Liberty
Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,
But opportunity is real, and life is free,
Equality is in the air we breathe.

(There's never been equality for me,
Nor freedom in this "homeland of the free.")

LANGSTON HUGHES

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You and your whole race.
Look down upon the town in which you live
And be ashamed.
Look down upon white folks
And upon yourselves
And be ashamed
That such supine poverty exists there,
That such stupid ignorance breeds children there
Behind such humble shelters of despair—
That you yourselves have not the sense to care
Nor the manhood to stand up and say
I dare you to come one step nearer, evil world,
With your hands of greed seeking to touch my throat,
I dare you to come one step nearer me:
When you can say that
you will be free!

LANGSTON HUGHES