Amanda's Honors English Blog: Into the Harlem Renaissance

The Harlem Renaissance, or the New Negro movement, was an African American cultural movement between the 1920s and 1930s.Many new job opportunities were open in the northern part of the United States because of World War I. African Americans moved form the south to the north.
This was known as the "Great Movement" because of the migration of African Americans to the north.
Many of the educated and "socially conscious" African Americans move to Harlem, New York.
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was formed by W. E. B. Du Bois to gain rights for black people.
African American literature and arts started to develop at the turn of the century. A lot of singers and songwriters became every popular.
Three works of literature were published and that ignited the start of the Harlem Renaissance.
After that, more African Americans were being recognized for their contributions to society, especially in the arts.
The Great Depression and other factors started the gradual downfall of the Harlem Renaissance.
Active members of the black community left New York and some of the associations changed their interests and stopped promoting the Renaissance.
The famous writings influenced popular American writers later.

Langston Hughes

Langston Hughes hit the height of his career during the 1920s, during the Harlem Renaissance
He was a famous poet, columnist, novelist, and playwright.
Hughes was born to mixed race parents in Joplin, Missouri and continued to grow up in tiny Midwestern towns.
In 1921 his famous poem "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" was published in The Crisis, an official magazine for the NAACP.
Hughes died at the age of 65 after problems due to surgery.

Paul Laurence Dunbar

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Paul Laurence Dunbar was the son of two former slaves who escaped from a plantation in Kentucky.
He started writing poems at the age of 6 and his works were first published by the Wright Brothers who knew Dunbar in high school.
His first collection of poems, Oak and Ivy, was published in 1983 and his second book was Majors and Minors was released in 1985.
During his career, Dunbar published a dozen poetry books, four short story books, five novels, and a play.
His most famous work was written in African American dialect. It was published in 1986 called Lyrics of a Lowly Life.

Jean Toomer

Jean Toomer was born on December 26, 1894 in Washing D.C to mixed race parents.
After he was finished with college, Jean Toomer went off and published a few short stories and continued to write during World War I.
In 1921 he traveled down to Georgia to serve as a principal for a new industrial school for black children.
After he returned to New York, his most well known novel, Cane, was released.
Small amounts of his fiction and essays were featured in Quakers Publications for an amount of time.

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