Life During The Harlem Renaissance

The Harlem district of New York City became a spirited community for a diverse population of thousands moving in from the southern states and the Caribbean, thus creating the atmosphere for Harlem Renaissance. The Harlem Renaissance was a part of the post-World War I cultural shift that found all Americans regardless of race, trying to come to terms with the change from a rural way of life to a northern industrial style of life. While the Harlem Renaissance from the 1920s to 1930s played a pivotal role in beginning of a new African American cultural with literary and artistic; the important change in African American cultural could have been different if it was not for the Great Migration. Many African Americans believed that the job market …show more content…
African American free of white slave owners, used their writings, acting, music expressed their pride in their history and culture. While jazz and blues music spread through major cities such as New Orleans, Chicago and Atlanta, New York, particular Harlem reminded the center of publishing and mass communication capital of the United States. Writers and artist who had relocated to Harlem seeking exposure created a wide variety of unique pieces of work to display the life of African Americans. Some of the Harlem Renaissance African American literature pioneers included Jean Toomer, Langston Hughes, Rudolf Fisher, Wallace Thurman, Jessie Redmon Fauset, Nella Larsen, Arna Bontemps, Countee Cullen, and Zora Neale Hurston. In addition to the reading literature of African American, whites would travel to Harlem to be entertained by musical performers such as Louis Armstrong, Bessie Smith and Duke Ellington. Many of the movement pioneers were born during the days of slavery and used their life experiences to express the struggle of African Americans. Whites’ captivated with the lifestyle of Black Harlem began to seek and publish pieces of writing by black authors. Many black critics felt that the representation of the ghetto pragmatism, could hinder the fight for cultural equality; however the movement …show more content…
As quickly as the Harlem became center of attraction, it lost the main reason that caused African Americans to Harlem, which was employment opportunities. African American were primarily forced out by white workers in an effort to preserve themselves. The financial backing and energy of white was swept from many African American projects, including substantial support of publications such as the NAACP’s The Crisis. The financial support that brought many artist to Harlem, was the same cause of many artists who drifting from Harlem to other places of opportunity such as Washington D.C. and Paris. The Harlem Renaissance is a historical timeframe, where African Americans took a liberating step to create their own imaginative and cultural identity. By the 1970s the African American community had quickly spread across the United States leaving their primarily rural lifestyle behind seeking opportunities in urbanized