# data[].attributes.body
first panel of paintings by Jacob Lawrence

# data[].attributes.body
African Americans were encouraged to go north where they could prosper and be free of slavery

# data[].attributes.body
Jamaican born political activist, publisher, journalist, entrepreneur, and orator. Founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League. Believed, "A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin, and culture is like a tree without roots."

# data[].attributes.body
the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People intended to push for the equality of all men.

# data[].attributes.body
author and anthropologist focusing on the racial struggles of the south

# data[].attributes.body
a representative voice as a poet, novelist, children's writer, and playwright. Married W.E.B. Du Bois's daughter with a spectacular wedding.

# data[].attributes.body
by Louis Armstrong
"I see trees of green, red roses too
I see them bloom for me and you
And I think to myself what a wonderful world

I see skies of blue and clouds of white
The bright blessed day, the dark sacred night
And I think to myself what a wonderful world"

# data[].attributes.headline
Duke Ellington and his Cotton Club Orchestra

# data[].attributes.subject
Duke Ellington and his Cotton Club Orchestra

# data[].attributes.body
the 'house' orchestra for years at the Cotton Club.

# data[].attributes.body
painter known for his sequence of 60 paintings drawing attention to the mass movement of African Americans from the south to the north

# data[].attributes.body
by Jacob Lawrence

# data[].attributes.body
by Duke Ellington
"You must take the 'A' train
To go Sugar Hill 'way up in Harlem
If you miss the 'A' train
You'll find you've missed the quickest way to Harlem

Hurry, get on now it's coming
Listen to those rails a thrumming
All 'board get on the 'A' train
Soon you will be on Sugar Hill in Harlem"

# data[].attributes.body
a parade by the Universal Negro Improvement Association travels through Harlem in 1924

# data[].attributes.body
important sociologist, historian, civil rights activist, Pan-Africanist, author, writer, and editor

# data[].attributes.body
(1929) by Archibald J. Motley

# data[].attributes.body
by Palmer C. Hayden

# data[].attributes.body
by Palmer C. Hayden

# data[].attributes.body
another name for the Harlem Renaissance, African Americans were finding new ways to express their pride

# data[].attributes.body
popular venue for black musicians in Harlem, New York. It was whites only entry.

# data[].attributes.body
ragtime and jazz pianist, bandleader, and composer

# data[].attributes.body
influential composer, pianist, and leader of a jazz orchestra. Wrote over 2000 pieces in his lifetime.

# data[].attributes.body
by Bessie Smith
"Saint Louis woman wid her diamon' rings
Pulls dat man 'roun' by her apron strings.
'Twant for powder an' for store-bought hair,
De man ah love would not gone nowhere, nowhere.
Got de Saint Louis Blues jes as blue as ah can be.
That man got a heart lak a rock cast in the sea."

# data[].attributes.body
by Louis Armstrong
He was a talented trumpeter known for his distinct voice and solos

# data[].attributes.body
new lively way to play the piano

# data[].attributes.body
Du Bois and other writers could publish influential literature in this journal by the NAACP.

# data[].attributes.body
influential writer, poet and author whiling pioneered jazz poetry

# data[].attributes.body
well known poet, wrote Harlem Shadows

# data[].attributes.body
popular artist, known for expressionist, folk style and use of texture

# data[].attributes.body
three African American women sporting the fashion of the renaissance

# data[].attributes.body
popular jazz singer who sang about important issues faced by African Americans

# data[].attributes.body
by Romare Bearden

# data[].attributes.body
(1936) by Aaron Douglas, known for his tribal African imagery

# data[].attributes.body
Droning a drowsy syncopated tune,

Rocking back and forth to a mellow croon,

I heard a Negro play.

Down on Lenox Avenue the other night

By the pale dull pallor of an old gas light

He did a lazy sway. . . .

He did a lazy sway. . . .

To the tune o’ those Weary Blues.

With his ebony hands on each ivory key

He made that poor piano moan with melody.

O Blues!

Swaying to and fro on his rickety stool

He played that sad raggy tune like a musical fool.

Sweet Blues!

Coming from a black man’s soul.

O Blues!

In a deep song voice with a melancholy tone

I heard that Negro sing, that old piano moan—

“Ain’t got nobody in all this world,

Ain’t got nobody but ma self.

I’s gwine to quit ma frownin’

And put ma troubles on the shelf.”

Thump, thump, thump, went his foot on the floor.

He played a few chords then he sang some more—

“I got the Weary Blues

And I can’t be satisfied.

Got the Weary Blues

And can’t be satisfied—

I ain’t happy no mo’

And I wish that I had died.”

And far into the night he crooned that tune.

The stars went out and so did the moon.

The singer stopped playing and went to bed

While the Weary Blues echoed through his head.

He slept like a rock or a man that’s dead.