Harlem Renaissance

Harlem renaissance also known as the New Negro Movement was an African American association created right after the World War I and later dissociated in 1935 by the Great depression. As leader and chief interpreter, Alain Leroy Locke described Harlem Renaissance as “a spiritual coming of age in which the black community was able to seize upon its first chances for group expression and self determination.” As its name indicated, Harlem renaissance was based in Harlem, a locality of New York. In fact, many factors such as black urban migration contributed to the creation of the movement. In fact, many former slaves, in order to live a better life, fled the south and headed to the urban northern cities where Blacks were more considered. In other hand, access to education in north is another factor that participated to the configuration of the movement. This point is supported by Jessica McElrath, who in The New Negro Movement states, “In addition, the black middle class was increasing and more educational opportunities were available to blacks.”

Moreover, important figures such as Philip Randolph, W.E.B. Du Bois, and Marcus Garvey led Black community to gather in this movement. In fact, Du Bois was the editor of Philip Randolph’s magazine entitled “The Messenger and the NAACP’s The Crisis.” Also known as the Prophet of the Civil Rights Movement, Randolph, along with Du Bois, through their publications called and reminded Blacks to get involved in the fight for their rights, later known as Civil Rights Movement. Speaking of Marcus Garvey, this figure is known to be an advocate for the return of African Americans to Africa. Garvey, founder of the party UNIA (Universal Negro Improvement Association), was fighting for the economic, political, and social independence of Blacks in U.S.

All these factors led African Americans to become conscious and therefore more active in the fight for their rights. For instance, a result was the formation of Harlem Renaissance in New York. This organization was so active that it had impacted education, philosophy, and political and religious views of African Americans. Next, during Harlem Renaissance period, there was an emergence of Black Writers who gave more credit to African American Literature. Among these writers, there are Sterling A. Brown, Countee Cullen, Jessie Redmon Fauset, Nella Larsen and Zora Neale Hurston.

For instance, this latter is a writer, anthropologist, and folklorist, better known for her 1937 book entitled Their eyes were watching God. She also wrote other books such as Dust Tracks on a Road in 1942, and Seraph on the Suvanee in 1948. One of her quotes is “Mama exhorted her children at every opportunity to “jump at de sun.” We might not land on the sun, but at least we would get off the ground.” According to the Website “Women in History”, “Zora Hurston was a utopian who held that black Americans could attain sovereignty from white American society and all its bigotry.” Unfortunately, her end was sad since she was more criticized than appreciated and died poor.

As I mentioned above, Harlem Renaissance also influence religious beliefs of Blacks. For instance, John Carroll stated, “in 1921, Marcus Garvey created African Orthodox Church.” Later in 1924, Bishop Ida founded the Mt. Sinai Holy Church of America headed mostly by women. On the social plan, Harlem Renaissance contributed to the success of black businesses, admiration of African Americans by other nations, and creation of popular night recreation places such as Cotton Club.

From my previous blog assignment and research, the civil rights movement started in 1955 and lasted about 10 years. According to Wikipedia, the civil rights movement refers to “the reform movements in the united stated aimed at abolishing racial discrimination against African Americans and restoring suffrage in southern states.” This movement is marked by the civil rights Act of 1964 and the Voting rights Act of 1965. However, it is important to mention that this movement was boosted by NAACP. One key event of the civil rights movement is Brown v. Board Education in 1954. In this case, according to Wikipedia, the court stated the “Segregation of White and Colored children in public schools has a detrimental effect upon colored children. The impact is greater when it has the sanction of the law; for the policy of separating the races is usually interpreted as denoting the inferiority of Negro group.”

As we all know, African American have ran a difficult path full of oppression and discrimination in United States. Among these difficulties were segregation, terrorism and lynching occasioned by White people. For instance, in 1955, the lynching of young African American Emmett Till occurred in Mississippi. This event described how far and low White racists could express their hatred against Blacks in America. In fact, I heard about this story two years ago in my History class when we were studying segregation and its consequences in U.S. All I remember is that Emmett had been killed just because he whistled to white woman in a store.

SNCC is an acronym that stands for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee which was created at Shaw University in Raleigh. This organization was founded in 1960, after the Greensboro sit-ins, by a group of black students in 1960 in order to stop discrimination at school. The most important figures of this movement were John Lewis, Julian Bond, Fannie Lou Hamer, Bob Moses, Ella Baker, and Stokeley Carmichael. In fact, “John Lewis is also known as an important figure of the Civil rights movement”. During his active fight, Lewis has been allegedly arrested more than 20 times.

Even though SNCC was founded by students, this organization was deeply determined to fight for Blacks’ rights. Consequently, these students, along with their allied participated in Sit-ins, Freedom Rides, Freedom Ballot, Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, and March on Washington in 1963. According to Wikipedia, this march was “a large political rally that took place in Washington, D.C. on August 28, 1963 where Martin Luther King delivered his historic I Have a Dream speech advocating racial harmony at the Lincoln Memorial.” During this rally, John Lewis showed his anger against the federal government which according to him “was not doing enough.”

On the other hand, SNCC is also known towards its contribution to Black Power, Vietnam War, and the feminist movement. It is also important to mention that white people gave a hand to SNCC.

After reading Clayborne Carson’s article, I realized that Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. were two figures targeting the same point but yet proposing two diametrically opposed solutions or directives. This point is emphasized by Carson who mentioned, “Malcolm and Martin understood the African-American dilemma from different perspectives rooted in their different experiences. Each leader was a visionary.” First of all, these people emerged from two different environments even though “both were sons of politically active Baptist Preachers.” In fact, King grew up in a stable family and surrounded by positive people such as George Kesley. However, Malcolm X encountered difficult situations that affected his life. First, Malcolm was only 13 when his father died in 1931, and later on he did not grow up with his mother since she was mentally affected.

Basically, King was an advocate of nonviolence fight as opposed to Malcolm X who wanted to reach his goal by all means including violence. It seems like Malcolm was more led by the eager to retaliate against White people.

Overall, this article depicts the impact of environment, and personal experiences on somebody’s personality. Based on my experiences, there is no doubt that environment has a lot to do on somebody’s future. For instance, I took a look back to my friends during childhood and I realized that I have grown up in a peaceful family as opposed to some friends whose parents were divorced. Today, I am pretty close to get my Bachelor Degree whereas some of them have dropped out of school or are just entering College. However, I am not saying it is their fault if they did not succeed in school, but they are victims of the environment that nurture them. Also, I think we do not have the same manner of thinking or philosophy given that they encountered difficult situations that forged them earlier. However, the advantage they have on me is the fact that they were adults before me and are more prepared to challenge new difficulties in their lives.

References:

SNCC 1960-1966, http://www.ibiblio.org/sncc/index.html

Harlem Renaissance, http://www.kurahulanda.com/temporary-harlem-renaissance

Carroll, John. Harlem Renaissance. http://www.jcu.edu/harlem/index.htm

McElrath, Jessica. Writers of Harlem Renaissance.

http://afroamhistory.about.com/od/harlemrenaissance/a/harlem_writers.htm

Rowen Beth, Brunner, Borgna. Great Days in Harlem.

http://www.infoplease.com/spot/bhmharlem1.html

Women in History. http://www.lkwdpl.org/wihohio/hurs-zor.htm