Harlem Renaissance Analysis

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he Harlem renaissance was a conglomeration of the best and brightest, poets, singers, artist, philosophers and all around thinkers of the African American community. They were escaping the oppression of the American South for a place where they could gather and let their creativity free. Some of the major names that were a part of the Renaissance included Langston Hughes (poet), Claude McKay (writer/poet), Zora Neale Hurston (novelist) and many more. The Harlem Renaissance wasn't just a gathering of intellectuals it was a symbol of black pride in an otherwise depressive society for them. The black community wanted more political and civil rights and gathering the biggest names in jazz and blues seemed to have a profound effect on the racial …show more content…
The most prominent conflict within the culture wars was the tension between black and white culture in American society. After the Great Migration of African Americans from the South to the North the friction between the races became even thicker than it had been before. The increase of black culture in the mainstream culture through jazz and blues, and the Harlem Renaissance discomforted the white sumpericist. The racism and discrimination by white people in both the North and the South aided the rise of the Ku Klux Klan. At the same time America was running the ¨Red Scare¨ campaign against communist ¨threats¨ to American democracy. The attorney general, Mitchell Palmer conducted what would later be called the Palmer Raids where U.S at ites would round up suspected communist, who were usually of Eastern European ethnicity. The raids and Palmer´s scare tickets bread anti-immigrant sentiments and beliefs. The nativism lead to the biased National Origins Act of 1924 which favored allowing immigrants from Northern Europe and Britain over Eastern Europeans and Asians. A nation wide ¨war¨ on values became one of the most well known attributes of the 1920s. Prohibition was spurred by the 18th amendment in 1919 which banned the sale and production of liquor over 0.5% alcohol content. Bars and taverns across the nation were closed overnight. The white middle class Americans were the driving force behind prohibition. They believed that alcohol was the source of all immoral proclivities. American family and marriage values and tame the unruly immigration population. The amendment backfired as the liquor trade just went underground with the help of the mafia and gangs. People like Al Capone created flourishing empires off of bootlegging and speakeasies. In reality the consumption and culture surrounding alcohol only got stronger during the prohibition.

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