Historical+Background+for+the+African+American+Literature+Unit

Historical Background of “A New Cultural Identity” - The Harlem Renaissance

Read pages 916-918 and find the answers to these questions.

During what time period and where did this Renaissance occur?


 * The 1920s in the Harlem section of Manhattan in New York City.**

“Renaissance” means rebirth or revival. The Harlem Renaissance was the rebirth of major contributions to literature, music, and the arts by what culture of people?


 * The African Americans

Why was this movement centered in Harlem?

What was hard about that time period for African Americans?
 * The movement was centered in Harlem because it was a magnet for thousands of blacks migrating from the South, the Midwest, and even the West Indies. Not only did it draw Blacks, but Harlem also drew whites- tourists.**


 * **There was racial discrimination, violence, poverty.**

What were two reasons that white people flocked to Harlem?
 * The writers and publishers were interested in the culture.
 * There were hot night spots such as the Cotton Club

The Renaissance gave African Americans a new cultural identity; they became the new Negro. A) What stereotypes did this “new Negro” reject?
 * **The "New Negro" rejected the beast-like stereotype they were given.**

B) What might be examples of those stereotypes?
 * That African Americans were only useful for being physical, such as labor, instead of for a more intellectual purpose.

C) What did they take pride in?
 * **They took pride in their heritage and their backgrounds.**

What was the international consciousness that they felt?
 * **They felt a kinship amongst themselves because of their culture and race.**

Who was an original and very important writer from the Harlem Renaissance?
 * **Langston Hughes**

What did he praise and who did he embrace in his works?

Who was one of the first writers to present African Americans as complete, complex human beings?
 * **Praised blackness, and the common, working people.**


 * Zora Neale Hurston

In “Voices from the Times,” read the poem by James Weldon Johnson. A) What should negroes rejoice about?


 * They should rejoice about liberty.

B) What is the “dark past” that he refers to?
 * **The dark past he refers to is the times of slavery.**

C) What is the hope of the present and rising sun of a new day? A new day will end discrimination. D) What might the victory be? The victory might be Civil Rights. **Gwendolyn Brooks** B) **James Baldwin**  C) **Toni Morrison**