The New Negro: Harlem Renaissance

History

What was the Harlem Renaissance?

The Harlem Renaissance (also known as the Black Literary Renaissance and the New Negro Movement) occurred during the 1920s and 1930s and was centered in the Harlem neighborhood in New York City. This was a time when African-Americans in Harlem began to achieve greater financial standing and thus were able to spend more time on creative pursuits like music, art, and movement.

Why Did African-Americans move North?

African Americans moved North when legal segregation made living conditions for African- Americans in the South unbearable. The lack of economic opportunities, and, more importantly, the prevalence of prejudice, lynching, and segregation in public spaces all contributed to the intolerable conditions of African-Americans. The migration of southern Blacks to the north changed the image of the African-American from rural, undereducated to urban, cosmopolitan sophistication. This new identity led to greater social consciousness, and African-Americans became players on the world stage, expanding intellectual and social contacts internationally.

Who created the term “The New Negro?” What did it mean?

Alain Locke coined the term “The New Negro.” It was a term used to promote a sense of pride and advocacy in the African-American community, and a refusal to submit to the injustices they were subjected to.

List the name of three Black authors.

Nella Larsen, Arna Bontemps, and Claude McKay.

Name three singers of the time period.

Louis Armstrong, Ethel Waters, and Duke Ellington.

Langston Hughes

What year was Langston Hughes born? What year did he die?

Mr. Hughes was born in Joplin, MO on February 2, 1902, and died May 22, 1967.

What were some of the changes that Langton Hughes went through in his family as a child?

Because of his mixed heritage, his father was never able to deal with the fact that Langston considered himself African-American. As result, his father abandoned him at a very young age. Hughes was confused about racism. As a schoolboy, he realized that nobody wanted to associate with him because of his skin color. He experienced quite a bit of discrimination throughout his life.

What kind of work (genres) did Hughes write?

Hughes wrote all kinds of genres and his work belonged to several categories (poems, novels, short stories, and even a few plays.

Why was Hughes’ early work criticized by Black intellectuals? What was Hughes’ response?

Hughes experienced mixed reactions to his work. Many black intellectuals did not like the way he portrayed the unsophisticated aspects of lower-class life, claiming that this focus heightened the unfavorable image of African-Americans. Mr. Hughes’ response to the criticism was, 'I sympathized deeply with those critics and those intellectuals, and I saw clearly the need for some of the kinds of books they wanted. But I did not see how they could expect every Negro author to write such books. Certainly, I personally knew very few people anywhere who were wholly beautiful and wholly good. Besides, I felt that the masses of our people had as much in their lives to put into books as did those more fortunate ones who had been born with some means and the ability to work up to a master's degree at a Northern college. Anyway, I didn't know the upper-class Negroes well enough to write much about them. I knew only the people I had grown up with, and they weren't people whose shoes were always shined, who had been to Harvard, or who had heard of Bach. But they seemed to me good people, too.'

Zora Neale Hurston

What was important about her birthplace and very early life? Her birthplace is important because it has been debated. In her autobiography, she writes that she was born in Eatonville, Florida instead of Notasulga, Alabama. That is probably because she had no memories of that town because her father moved her to Florida when she was just a toddler.

What was Zora Neale Hurston’s earliest success as a writer?

Their Eyes Were Watching God is considered a masterwork, her early short story, Sweat, and her autobiographical essay, How It Feels to be Colored Me, established her as a literary force.

What was the name of the play she wrote with Langton Hughes?

Hurston wrote Mule Bone: A Comedy of Negro Life with Hughes.

List three books she published.

Three books that Zora Neale Hurston published are, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Mules, and Men, and Barracoon: The story of the Last “Black Cargo.”

Describe the tragic circumstances of her death.

In 1959, Hurston suffered several strokes and was forced to accept welfare and move into a St. Lucie County Welfare Home. She did not have any money or connections. She died in 1960 shortly after her 69th birthday. Because she did not have any money, neighbors had to raise money to pay for her funeral. Unfortunately, they did not have enough to purchase a headstone. She was buried in an unmarked grave in a pauper’s field.