Harlem Renaissance

Examining the political, economic, and social environment, as well as the artistic and cultural events of the Harlem Renaissance, these two volumes present some 625 entries, including essays on major writers, artists, and performers. The volumes also include 180 black-and-white photographs and a street map of Harlem, 1913-1930. Other entries include topics such as Art criticism and the Harlem Renaissance, Civil rights and law, Europe and the Harlem Renaissance and riots. There are even entries devoted to artists or works inspired by the Harlem Renaissance movement (for example, Sherwood Anderson's novel Dark Laughter).

A milestone in the study of African-American life and culture reissued, with a new foreword. Harlem Renaissance remains an indispensable guide to the facts and features, the puzzles and mysteries, of one of the most provocative episodes in African-American and American history. Indeed, Huggins offers a brilliant account of the creative explosion in Harlem during these pivotal years. Blending the fields of history, literature, music, psychology, and folklore, he illuminates the thought and writing of key figures. But the main objective for Huggins, throughout the book, is always to achieve a better understanding of America as a whole. As Huggins himself noted, he didn't want Harlem in the 1920s to be the focus of the book so much as a lens through which readers might see how this one moment in time sheds light on the American character and culture, not just in Harlem but across the nation. He strives throughout to link the work of poets and novelists not only to artists working in other genres and media but also to economic, historical, and cultural forces in the culture at large.

The first two chapters present an engaging introduction to the Harlem Renaissance and the evolution of Harlem. Succeeding chapters discuss the music, art, and literature that were produced by African Americans in that time and place. Notables such as Duke Ellington, Zora Neale Hurston, Ethel Waters, Langston Hughes, Bill Robinson, Aaron Douglas, and Augusta Savage are included, as well as the Cotton Club, the Federal Arts Program, the Harmon Foundation, the Great Depression, prohibition, the Urban League, and many other individuals, institutions, organizations, and events that helped shape the period known as the Harlem Renaissance. Primary-source material is abundant.

The intellectual and cultural expansion of the 1920s known as the Harlem Renaissance deeply enriched American society. Recently freed from slavery, black Americans finally had an opportunity to freely express themselves even though they continued to face many hardships, including segregation and poverty. Through main text that features annotated quotes from primary sources and historical photographs, readers learn about the contributions people of color made to art, literature, and music in the 1920s. In-depth sidebars connect these past achievements with those of the present. Discussion questions ask readers to think critically about the impact of the Harlem Renaissance.

In the midst of vast cultural and political shifts in the early twentieth century, politicians and cultural observers variously hailed and decried the rise of the "New Negro." This phenomenon was most clearly manifest in the United States through the outpouring of Black arts and letters and social commentary known as the Harlem Renaissance. What is less known is how far afield of Harlem that renaissance flourished--how much the New Negro movement was actually just one part of a collective explosion of political protest, cultural expression, and intellectual debate all over the world.