Transcript Harlem Renaissance - Beavercreek City Schools

Great Migration
• What is it?
– Large-scale movement of African Americans from the
South to cities in the North (hundreds of thousands)
• Why did the African American Population shift
North?
1. Escape Racial Discrimination (hard to make a living)
2. More job opportunities (factories, steel mills,
stockyards, automobiles) especially during WWI
3. Recruited by Northern manufacturers – gave them free
railroad passes to come North making it easier to move
Great Migration
Harlem Renaissance
Definition
• African American Art Movement
• Stimulated artistic development,
racial pride, a sense of community
and promoted political organizations
• Sparked African Americans to start
demanding more rights and equality
• Heart of movement was Harlem, NY
Writers
• Proclaimed that African Americans would
no longer accept 2nd class citizenship
• Wrote of racial pride
• Wrote about racism and the effects of it
• Continue to influence white and black
writers today
Claude McKay
• Poet who wrote of
American racism
and expressed a
proud defiance and
hatred of racism
• Exposed what life
was really like
growing up in black
ghettos
Langston Hughes
• Poet who became
leading voice of the
African American
experience, especially
for working class blacks
• Wrote of black defiance
and of hope
• Dealt with issues of
cultural heritage
Hughes’s Work
Jazz, Blues, and Theater
• First time African Americans were given
serious roles on the American stage
• Blues – soulful style of music that
evolved from African American spirituals
• Jazz – New form of music that was
improvised
–Influenced by Dixieland and ragtime
music
Louis Armstrong
• Introduced an
early form of jazz
to Chicago
• First great cornet
and trumpet
soloist
Duke Ellington
• Composer, pianist,
and bandleader
• Got start along
with many other
musicians at
famous Harlem
nightspot, The
Cotton Club
Famous Women
• Bessie Smith –
Empress of the Blues
• Josephine Baker – First
African American
Female to star in
motion pictures
• Worked on Broadway
then moved to Paris
W.E.B. DuBois
• Leading voice in
African American
community
• Help start the
NAACP
– Worked to end
discrimination and
mistreatment of
African Americans
in the US
W.E.B DuBois
• Editor of The Crisis – a
magazine that promoted
African American arts
movement
• The Crisis today - discusses
critical issues confronting
people of color, American
society and the world
– Brings attention to the
historical and cultural
achievements of these
diverse peoples.
Marcus Garvey
• Founded the Universal
Negro Improvement
Association, which
promoted black pride
and unity
• Advocated self-reliance
and independence/
separation from whites
• Wanted blacks to return
to Africa to create new
empire
What led to the Harlem Renaissance?
Great Migration
– African
Americans
moving from
rural South to
urban North
• Why?
– Had economic
and domestic
impact