2011). Through fiction, poetry, essays, music, theatre, sculpture, painting and illustration, participants in this first Black arts movement produced work that was both grounded in modernity and an engagement with African-American history, folk culture and memory. In the 1920s the African Americans culture arose and was viewed and accepted by many whites in America. Music was very important to society in this decade with Jazz music being the soundtrack of the decade. Jazz music was a combination of African American traditional styles (blues) with the ragtime beats.
Woodson’s road to creating this special month of celebration was not an easy one. Coming from a family with both parents being former slaves, he did not have the opportunity to an education until the age of thirty, when he finally enrolled in high school. Woodson eventually became one of only two black men in history to achieve his Ph. D, and later founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life with four other friends in 1915. He spent most of his free time as a powerful journalist and in 1926, finally convinced the government to officially have a week dedicated to black history.
I. Plot summary Black like me, written by John Howard Griffin speaks about the way the Negros (as they say in the book) were treated in the late 50’s. John H. Griffin was a journalist, a white journalist working for the black-owned magazine Sepia. One day, he decided to cross the line that separated black people and white people. He took medications that darkened his skin and became brown.
Scott Joplin had played in New York, and other great musicians followed in his footsteps. After The Original Dixieland Jazz Band played on Broadway, jazz musicians imitated the New Orleans sound. While not attaining the undisciplined and wildly erratic beat of New Orleans jazz, the popularity of jazz in New York increased drastically. The 1920s proved to be a Golden Age of jazz in New York. Jazz was diverse and appealed to people from every echelon of society.
This introduction, written by Robert G. O’Meally, informs us what to expect in this narrative about the life of Fredrick Douglass and his influences. It is basically a long summary of the book and then some. Robert G. O’Meally thoroughly mentions all the most significant parts of Fredrick Douglass’s life that’s described throughout the book. He begins the introduction with a personal reflection, describing how a white woman in his class was taken aback by how much African American material was assigned in the class. Not knowing how influential the history of African Americans and slavery has had a big impact on today’s society.
Black music became a major success in the Harlem Renaissance. It was liked by all different kinds of mixed audiences. Black music provided the pulse of the Harlem Renaissance and of the Jazz age. Music was a major social aspect of black culture. “The Harlem Renaissance emerged amid social and intellectual upheaval in the African American Community.”(Wintz1).
Other novels and autobiographies by McKay include Banjo (1929), Banana Bottom (1933); A Long Way from Home (1937), and Negro Metropolis (1940). McKay’s viewpoints and poetic achievement set the tone for the Harlem Renaissance and gained the deep respect of younger black poets, including Langston Hughes (Academy of American Poets). Another notable figure during the Harlem Renaissance was Countee Cullen. He was born in 1903 in Ney York City. In 1922, he entered New York University.
There are various artistes, poets and writers who have received global recognition for their magnificent works and trace their roots to the Harlem Renaissance. This movement is what shaped today's politics where the African-American cultural heritage has been used to express the messages by the black minority in the American society/ This movement was therefore a key factor in shaping today's Civic Right Movements and Social activist Groups in modern
Several writers, including Hughes, Hurston, Larsen, and Toomer relied particularly on the rich folk tradition (oral culture, folktales, black dialect, jazz and blues composition) to create unique literary forms. Other writers, such as Cullen, McKay and Helene Johnson wrote within more conventional literary genres as a way to capture what they saw as the growing urbanity and sophistication of African Americans. The literature of the Harlem Renaissance, therefore, reflects the multiple ways that black experience in America was perceived and expressed in the first decades of the twentieth
One of the most famous and influential writers and poets of the Renaissance was Langston Hughes. To this day the impact of his writing is still felt and the lines of his poetry still speak volumes about the desperate need for a change in the African American way of life. Born in Joplin, Missouri but soon moved to live with his grandmother in Lawrence, Kansas. After her death he moved to Lincoln, Illinois to live with his mother and it was there that he began to write poetry. Hughes began to explore poetry in high school and was quickly recognized by many of his teachers.