Life in the early 1900s for many African Americans was extremely tough. Many of the tough times endured by African Americans were recorded in poetry, plays, books, articles, and other forms of literature. Some of these pieces are How It Feels To Be Colored Me by Zora Neale Hurston, Harlem: The Culture Capital by James Weldon Johnson and poems from the Harlem Renaissance. During this time period about 40-70 years post slavery many African Americans voices were still unheard and many African Americans were oppressed and segregated. How many African Americans expressed their culture was through art, music, and literature. Being discussed will be the literary expression. The most prominent writing piece of which is A Raisin In The Sun by Lorraine Hansberry. It is a play about a black family on the southside of Chicago.
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Only in their own black communities such as Harlem where it was only black people did they not experience racism and segregation. For example, Zora Neale Hurston an African American writer, the author of How It Feels To Be Colored Me, lived in florida in her own black community. Although for schooling, “I left Eatonville, the town of oleanders, as Zora.” She was just an innocent little girl, but, “When I disembarked from the riverboat at Jacksonville she was no more. It seemed that I had suffered a sea change.” She had now experienced one of the most horrible things in human history. “I was not Zora of Orange County any more, I was now a little colored girl.” (Hurston)952 After exposing herself to the white culture she then understood racism. That was her first exposure to racism after leaving her all black community. Unfortunately, this was apart of the black experience in the early 1900s. Just like how in A Raisin In The Sun, Walter and his family are frowned upon because they are
Only in their own black communities such as Harlem where it was only black people did they not experience racism and segregation. For example, Zora Neale Hurston an African American writer, the author of How It Feels To Be Colored Me, lived in florida in her own black community. Although for schooling, “I left Eatonville, the town of oleanders, as Zora.” She was just an innocent little girl, but, “When I disembarked from the riverboat at Jacksonville she was no more. It seemed that I had suffered a sea change.” She had now experienced one of the most horrible things in human history. “I was not Zora of Orange County any more, I was now a little colored girl.” (Hurston)952 After exposing herself to the white culture she then understood racism. That was her first exposure to racism after leaving her all black community. Unfortunately, this was apart of the black experience in the early 1900s. Just like how in A Raisin In The Sun, Walter and his family are frowned upon because they are