Visual Essay: Harlem Renaissance by Reagan Bailey

"What a Wonderful World"

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I see skies of blue and clouds of white

The bright blessed days, the dark sacred nights

And I think to myself

What a wonderful world

Harlem

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A large city in Manhattan, known as a residential, cultural, and business center for African Americans.

Setting the Stage

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Part of why the Harlem Renaissance is so important in history is that it set the stage for the Civil Rights Movement.

Bessie Smith

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For so long prior to the Harlem Renaissance, women had been fighting for equal rights. However, white women still ostracized Black women. Bessie Smith was able to break through these barriers as a woman and as a person of color to show her talent and inherent worth as a human being.

"Downhearted Blues"

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Gee, but it's hard to love someone when that someone don't love you!
I'm so disgusted, heart-broken, too; I've got those down-hearted blues

"Harlem"

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Langston Hughes' poem Harlem which helps us understand how we need dreams for survival.

"I, Too, Sing America."

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Another Langston Hughes poem. I, Too, Sing America demonstrates the relationship between Black and white Americans.

"America"

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Written by Claude McKay, America shows how Black people tried to reconcile the love for their country while also being treated so terribly by it.

Duality

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A main piece of the Harlem Renaissance was the duality many faced. Many African Americans had never even been to Africa. The U.S. was their home. A home they loved. However, the U.S. was also a country that prided itself on freedom while not being free for these Black citizens.

"If We Must Die"

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In, If We Must Die, McKay raises a call to arms, encouraging Black people to die nobly and be brave.

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Zora Neale Hurston was an anthropologist and writer during this era. Her most famous work was a novel called Their Eyes Were Watching God.

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W.E.B. Du Bois was a writer, activist, and philosopher during the Harlem Renaissance. His life centered around creating an equal and just society for everyone.

Double Consciousness

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This is a term coined by W.E.B Du Bois. It refers to what it was like for Black people to live in a white world. He described it as a twoness or as a sense of looking at yourself through someone else's eyes.

NAACP

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Du Bois helped begin the organization of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

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Paris, France was a place of hope and validation for Black artists which could not be found in America.

Explorations in the City of Light: African-American Artists in Paris, 1945-1965

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This exhibit was the first to give and in-depth exploration of the lure to post-war Paris for African American artists.

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Edward Clark, Barbara Chase-Riboud, Harold Cousins, Beauford Delaney, Herbert Gentry, Lois Mailou Jones, and Larry Potter were all featured in ''Explorations in the City of Light: African-American Artists in Paris, 1945-1965."

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The great migration of African Americans to cities like New York City, Chicago, and Washington D.C. was a contributing factor to the rise of the Harlem Renaissance.

The Cotton Club

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The Cotton Club was a revue featuring glamorous dancers, tap dancers, comics, and vaudeville performers. Black and white people alike came to Harlem to see the show.

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The Duke Ellington Orchestra was the house orchestra for the Cotton Club for years.

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Jacob Lawrence, a painter from the Harlem Renaissance.

The Immigration Series

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Jacob Lawrence painted a series of 60 paintings to depict the migration of African Americans to northern cities.

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Duke Ellington was a jazz composer, conductor, and performer of the Harlem Renaissance.

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Bessie Smith was popular with both black and white listeners. She was a famous jazz and blues singer.

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Bessie Smith and Louis Armstrong recorded together.

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The Harlem Renaissance was a golden age for African Americans. It gave artists, writers, and musicians pride and control over the expression of the black experience.

End of an Era

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The stock market crash and Great Depression began the end of the Harlem Renaissance. The end of the Prohibition and people moving to new places in search of work caused the creative boom to waver.

Harlem Race Riot

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The Harlem Race Riot in 1935 broke out. It killed three people, injured hundreds, and caused property damage worth millions of dollars. It was the end of the Harlem Renaissance.

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An art exhibition featuring Black artists.