Harlem Renaissance: History, Music, and Videos

The Harlem Renaissance

The Harlem Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned the 1920s and 1930s. During the early portion of the 20th century, Harlem was the destination for African-Americans migrants from around the country, attracting both people seeking work from the South, and an educated class who made the area a center of culture, as well as a growing “Black” middle class. The Harlem Renaissance grew out of the changes that had taken place in the African-American community since the abolition of slavery, as well as the expansion of communities in the North. These accelerated as a consequence of World War I and the great social and cultural changes in early 20th century United States. Industrialization was attracting people to cities from rural areas and gave rise to a new mass culture. Contributing factors leading to the Harlem Renaissance were the Great Migration of African Americans to northern cities, which concentrated ambitious people in places where they could encourage each other, and the First World War, which had created new industrial work opportunities for tens of thousands of people

Some common themes represented during the Harlem Renaissance were the influence of the experience of slavery and emerging African-American folk traditions on black identity, the effects of institutional racism, the dilemmas inherent in performing and writing for elite white audiences, and the question of how to convey the experience of modern black life in the urban North.