The New Negro and the birth of the Black Excellence, Expression and Intellectualism

On this date in 1924, we celebrate the dawn of the Harlem Renaissance. It was on March 21st, 1924 that Charles Spurgeon Johnson held a meeting at the New York Civic Club. The dinner brought together Black writers, Black pundits and white writers and publishers. This event became a dress rehearsal for what would become the Harlem Renaissance.

Johnson’s dinner, held at a critical time, was a wonderful success. Black philosopher and literary scholar Alain LeRoy Locke was invited to edit an issue of Survey Graphics, a magazine of social analysis and critique. Also in March of 1925, their special Harlem issue hit the newsstands with a blistering set of essays and poems directed at defining a unique Black aesthetic and new radical political viewpoint. Later in 1925, Locke expanded the issue into a book, The New Negro that crystallized the artistic and intellectual movement already underway. In this influential book, Locke described the northward migration of Blacks as "something like a spiritual emancipation."

There were already indications that a new and exciting body of work would emerge from African American artist and writers in Northern cities. Though technically beginning in 1918, the Harlem Renaissance is the name given to the period in Black America from the end of World War I and through the middle of the 1930s Depression. It was during this time, which a group of talented African-American writers produced an extensive amount of literature in four prominent formats; poetry, fiction, drama, and essay. "From 1920 until about 1930 an exceptional outburst of creative activity among African-Americans occurred in all fields of art. Beginning as a series of literary discussions in the lower Manhattan (Greenwich Village) and upper Manhattan (Harlem) sections of New York City, this African-American cultural movement became known as "The New Negro Movement" and later as the Harlem Renaissance.

In-house magazines of the Urban league (Opportunity) and the NAACP (The Crisis) employed renaissance writers on their editorial staff, published poetry and short stories by black writers, encouraged new work through literary prizes and broadened the black audience for literature. More than a literary movement and more than a social revolt against racism, the Harlem Renaissance established and exalted the unique culture of African-Americans and redefined African-American expression. The Civic club dinner paid dividends: In the ten years after that more than sixteen black writers published more than fifty volumes of poetry and fiction. African-Americans began to and were encouraged to celebrate their heritage and to become "The New Negro," a term coined in 1925 by Locke. The personal quest for freedom expressed by this New Negro in American Blacks was one of personal survival.

It was also in response to the “Jim Crow Laws” which ruined the Reconstruction legislation after the civil war. Innovations flourished in music. Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey sang the blues and became leading recording artist of the time. Jelly Roll Morton and Louis Armstrong married the blues of the rural South to the pace of the and transformed jazz. Another factor contributing to the rise of the Harlem Renaissance was shown in the great migration of African-Americans to northern cities (such as New York City, Chicago, and Washington, D.C.) between 1919 and 1926.

Black urban migration, combined with trends in American society as a whole toward experimentation during the 1920s, and the rise of sweeping Black intellectuals including Locke, Jesse Fauset, Richard B. Moore, William Trotter, Nella Larson, Marcus Garvey, Marita Bonner, and W. E. B. Du Bois all contributed to the particular styles and unprecedented success of Black artists during the Harlem Renaissance period.

The Top 10 Most Important Figures in the Harlem Renaissance

#10 Claude McKay (September 15, 1889 – May 22, 1948)

Role: poet, novelist, journalist

Claude McKay was a Jamaican immigrant who at first wrote poems primarily in Jamaican dialect but switched to Standard English forms after moving to the United States. His militant sonnet “If We Must Die” was published in 1919 during a period of intense racial violence. The poem noted for its revolutionary tone became popular among African American readers and is considered a landmark of Harlem Renaissance. His 1928 novel Home to Harlem became a best-seller and won the Harmon Gold Award for Literature. The following year his novel Banjo was published which was hailed as a radical work that envisioned the black political identity in a global framework. McKay was among the most famous writers of the Harlem Renaissance and an influential figure the movement.

Famous Harlem Renaissance Works:-

• If We Must Die (Poem, 1919)
• Home to Harlem (Novel, 1928)
• Banjo (Novel, 1929)

#9 Alain LeRoy Locke (September 13, 1885 – June 9, 1954)

Role: writer, philosopher, educator

The first African American Rhodes Scholar, Alain Locke was the editor of The New Negro: An Interpretation, which was published in 1925. An anthology of fiction, poetry, and essays on African and African-American art and literature, The New Negro is considered the definitive text of the Harlem Renaissance and gave it the name by which it was known during the time, the “New Negro Movement”. Along with W. E. B. Du Bois, Locke was the leading philosopher of the Harlem Renaissance and gave the movement direction and inspiration. He was also a member of the Bahai Faith. www.bahai.us

#8 Aaron Douglas (May 26, 1899 – February 3, 1979)

Aaron Douglas

Role: painter

After moving to Harlem in 1925, Aaron Douglass became involved in the Renaissance and started creating illustrations for the two most important magazines associated with the movement, The Crisis Opportunity. In his canvases and he moved away from traditional landscape painting and developed his own modernist style of geometrical figurative representation in dealing with “Negro” subject matter. Douglass depicted the realities of the black struggle for political and creative freedom. He played a leading role in the Harlem Renaissance and is considered the signature visual artist of the movement.

Famous Harlem Renaissance Works:-

• Harriet Tubman (Mural, 1930)
• Symbolic Negro History (Murals, 1930)
• Dance Magic (Murals, 1931)

#7 Marcus Garvey (17 August 1887 – 10 June 1940)

Role: political leader, publisher, journalist

In 1914, Marcus Garvey founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) for the general uplift of the people of African ancestry of the world. The greatest period of UNIA was in the 1920s and the organization remains active even today. The paper of UNIA, Negro World was among the prominent journals associated with the Harlem Renaissance. Garvey worked as its editor for a while. He then led the Back to Africa movement of the 1920s which called for the return of the African diaspora to the African homelands of their ancestors. Though only a few prominent figures of the renaissance identified with the Back to Africa movement, Garvey was an influential leader of Harlem Renaissance and played an important role in inculcating racial pride among African Americans.

#6 Zora Neale Hurston (January 7, 1891 – January 28, 1960)

Zora Neale Hurston

Role: author

Zora Neale Hurston arrived in New York City in 1925 when the Harlem Renaissance was at its peak and she soon became a prominent figure the movement. Her writings, more than anyone else, revealed the truth of the black Southern experience as being a native of the rural South she was intimate with black folklore. Hurston was the most prominent female writer of the Harlem Renaissance and her 1937 novel Their Eyes Were Watching God is considered among the most influential works of not only the Renaissance but also of African American and women’s literature.

Famous Harlem Renaissance Works:-

• Sweat (Short Story, 1926)
• The Gilded Six-Bits (Short Story, 1933)
• Their Eyes Were Watching God (Novel, 1937)

#5 Duke Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974)

Role: Musician

Jazz is considered the heartbeat of Harlem Renaissance and Duke Ellington’s contribution to the genre was phenomenal. He moved to Harlem in the mid-1920s and became one of the early innovators of orchestral jazz, which is a fusion of jazz’s rhythmic and instrumental characteristics with the scale and structure of an orchestra. His orchestra, which he led from 1923 until his death, is the most famous orchestral unit in the history of jazz. Often collaborating with others, Ellington wrote more than one thousand compositions making him the most prolific composer of jazz ever. Considered by many as the greatest jazz composer and bandleader, Ellington was awarded the highest civilian award in , the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1969.

#4 Josephine Baker (3 June 1906 – 12 April 1975)

Role: dancer, singer, fashion icon

Josephine Baker rose to prominence after performing in the chorus of the ground-breaking and highly successful Broadway musical comedy Shuffle Along. She went to Paris and became an international sensation for her erotic dancing at the Théatre des Champs-élysées in La Revue Nègre. Though she performed in Paris during the height of the Harlem Renaissance, Baker was a highly influential figure in the movement being the first black woman to become a world-famous entertainer. She was a fashion trendsetter for black and white women alike and a muse for several famous artists of the time. Later she contributed to the African American Civil Rights Movement and is known for refusing to perform for segregated audiences.

#3 W. E. B. Du Bois (February 23, 1868 – August 27, 1963)

W. E. B. Du Bois

Role: writer, sociologist, civil rights activist

In 1909, Du Bois co-founded the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), an organization which remains active even today. In 1910, the NAACP launched its official magazine The Crisis and Du Bois was its editor for the first 24 years. The Crisis played an important role in the Harlem Renaissance providing a platform for several well-known writers of the movement, including Claude McKay and Langston Hughes. Du Bois was among the leading intellectuals of the and wrote several important pieces which introduced concepts like ‘double consciousness’ which were widely used by writers of the movement.

Famous Harlem Renaissance Works:-

• The Souls of Black Folk ( Book, 1903)
• Darkwater: Voices from Within the Veil (Autobiography, 1920)
• Dark Princess (Historical Novel, 1928)

#2 Louis Armstrong (August 4, 1901 – July 6, 1971)

Role: Musician

In popular culture, Harlem Renaissance is famous for African American music which gained prominence during the movement, especially jazz. Rising to prominence in the 1920s as the renaissance peaked, Louis Armstrong is not only the most popular musician of the movement but also considered among the greatest artists in jazz history. He first became known as an inventive trumpet and cornet player. And in the mid-1920s he emerged as the first great jazz soloist. Known for his unique voice Armstrong was also skilled at scat singing (vocalizing using sounds and syllables instead of actual lyrics). His contribution the development and popularity of jazz music cannot be overstated.

#1  Langston Hughes (February 1, 1902 – May 22, 1967)

Langston Hughes

Role: poet, novelist, playwright, columnist, social activist

Langston Hughes is the most famous person associated with the Harlem Renaissance and among the most influential leaders of the movement. He famously wrote about the period that “the negro was in vogue”. Considered among the greatest poets in U.S. history, Hughes was one of the earliest innovators of jazz poetry, poetry that “demonstrates jazz-like rhythm”. His works often portrayed the lives of African Americans. Hughes was a proponent of creating distinctive “Negro” art and not falling for the “urge within the race toward whiteness”.

Famous Harlem Renaissance Works:-

• The Weary Blues (Poetry Collection, 1926)
• Fine Clothes to the Jew (Poetry Collection, 1927)
• The Ways of White Folks (Short Stories Collection, 1934)