African-American Rights Movements: Harlem Renaissance

When considering essential movements in American poetry, no conversation would be complete without a discussion of the Harlem Renaissance. With a lyricism seated in the popular blues and jazz music of the time, an awareness of black life in America, its assertion of an independent African American identity, and its innovation in form and structure, the poetry of the Harlem Renaissance is unmistakable.

Presents information, drawn from legal records, newspapers and other archival and published sources, about everyday life in New York City's Harlem neighborhood in the years 1915-1930.

Discover how prominent figures in Harlem influenced, challenged, and supported one another in the period between 1917 and 1935. Investigate how their collective and individual voices reflected and shaped what we now call the Harlem Renaissance.

African-American expressions of writing, music, and art during the 1920s and 1930s are well represented in the vast collections of the Library of Congress. This guide presents the Library's resources as well as links to external Web sites on the Harlem Renaissance and a bibliography.

Jacke Wilson looks at the works of Langston Hughes, Nella Larsen, Zora Neale Hurston, and the many others who turned Harlem into the center of a worldwide movement.

Frank Guridy discusses the multifaceted, multilayered movement that inspired a new generation of African-Americans—and other Americans—and demonstrated the importance of Black culture and its contributions to the West.

Harlem Renaissance, a blossoming of African American culture, particularly in the creative arts, and the most influential movement in African American literary history. Embracing literary, musical, theatrical, and visual arts, participants sought to reconceptualize “the Negro” apart from the white stereotypes that had influenced black peoples’ relationship to their heritage and to each other.

Dr. Wintz addresses the origins and nature of the movement—a task, he says, that is far more complex than it may seem.

Overview and primary source collection from the Digital Public Library of America.

American writer who was an important figure in the Harlem Renaissance and made the African American experience the subject of his writings, which ranged from poetry and plays to novels and newspaper columns.

Charismatic black leader who organized the first important American black nationalist movement, based in New York City’s Harlem.

Was one of the most important leaders of African American protest in the United States. During the first half of the 1900's, he became the leading black opponent of racial discrimination. He also won fame as a historian and sociologist.

American pianist who was the greatest jazz composer and bandleader. One of the originators of big-band jazz, Ellington led his band for more than half a century, composed thousands of scores, and created one of the most distinctive ensemble sounds in all of Western music.