Yet do I marvel at this curious thing to make poets black and bid him sing"
Countee Cullen. To change the faces of artists of the voice, unheard, and stories of truth-
untold was the open goal of the Harlem Renaissance. To breathe life into black culture, to
lead in a direction, the movement, the influence, a black man and woman's broaden
creativity, and the main insight, revolution.
Following the civil war of 1961-1865 in the United States of America, what
became known as the "Great Migration"(the movement of southern blacks to the north.)
southerners settled in Harlem, upper town Manhattan. When African Americans settled
there they brought their culture, history, and talents. Their culture and history was
forgotten and their talents was very much overlooked tremendously in that time period,
for that, then any minority group was looked upon having "no sense of agreeable
structure and style."
Then in 1910 as the middle class of the African American expanded, more
committees and organizations grew.
The most prominent organization formed was the
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) founded by
W.E.B. Dubois. It was founded in 1909 to advance the rights of blacks. It was also
reflected in the efforts of Marcus Garvey whose "Back to Africa Movement" inspired
racial pride among the working class blacks in the Untied States in the 1920s-(Encarta
Africana)
However, before the Harlem Renaissance came about, African American
literature and arts were developing. Overlooked accomplishing songwriters such as Bob
Cole and composer J. Resamond Johnson. Also jazz and blues moved from the south and
the Midwest to the north. Among those to receive national recognition and only among
the artists in that time period were Poet Laurence Dunbar and writer Charles W.
Chestnutt. Among the first to describe freely on the...